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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992335">Crystal Fell in Love with the Radio Star</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossyourfingers/pseuds/crossyourfingers'>crossyourfingers</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RuPaul's Drag Race RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crygi Fic But Not In High School, Crystal Methyd is a lesbian icon, Crystal is still an art kid though cannot deny, Cute Little Neighborhood Friends, Dahlia is Nice In this One?! Omg, F/F, Gigi x Crystal - Freeform, Janda Essence Hall Sport, Lesbian AU, Multi, RPDR FF, Record Shop Romance, Season 12 (RuPaul's Drag Race), Season 12 Neighborhood Fic, Useless Lesbians, crygi, jackie Cox is your favorite auntie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:19:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>45,346</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992335</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossyourfingers/pseuds/crossyourfingers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Crystal Methyd. Lesbian icon, avid morning radio listener, music aficionado, and the young owner of the neighborhood record store, Methyd Records. After living through a family tragedy and taking over the family business, Crystal finds herself taking care of everything and everyone around her and the idea of leaving the neighborhood she grew up in is out of the question. Years of feeling stagnant and not thinking about herself or what she wants go by until she meets the effortlessly cool new radio personality in town and everything starts to *record scratch*</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gigi Goode/Crystal Methyd, Heidi N Closet/Aiden Zhane, Jaida Essence Hall/Jan Sport</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>132</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>120</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Roll Call!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi everyone! Thanks so much for checking out my story! I used to be big into fic writing YEARS ago and thought I'd finally start up again with the very same user name I used to write K-pop fics (Kpop forever!!) I love RPDR and thought I'd try my hand at an unusual Crygi fic. I am an obsessive vinyl collector and find something so romantic about it, so I went off of that and incorporated some fun elements of different record store settings in pop culture that always give me fuzzy, nostalgic feelings. I hope you all enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Gigi’s voice, however, after just one sentence has managed to bring about a new, unfamiliar feeling in Crystal. A feeling that she hasn’t really felt in years. Excited? Nervous? Itchy? All of the above.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Friday. It’s 7:00 am and gray and drizzly outside. Crystal wakes up in a cold sweat a whole half an hour before her alarm was meant to go off. After being startled awake by what she could only assume was yet another stress-induced nightmare, she sits up and feels each disc of her spine crack as they support her new upright position. Lacking any desire to leave her bed, Crystal slumps over letting her long, tanned arms unfold before her on her orange paisley duvet cover. She begins to shake her arms out as if she were boneless and rub her face and eyes, trying to prevent herself from dozing. Some of her unruly, curly coffee-colored mullet gets caught in her jagged, unkempt fingernails. She winces as she tries to separate her hand from the small runaway curls that come down slightly over the top of her forehead. While Crystal would love to get a fancy manicure with any and all neon colors and possibly a hair trim of some sort, she has very little time to think about pampering herself in that way, plus, running her fingers over the slight groove between her bare fingernails and the chipped paint has become one of her many near-invisible coping mechanisms.</p><p>When Crystal sits up completely once again, she narrows her eyes and turns to her neon green digital clock with dim red numbers, still very much upset she did not get her full fill of sleep. It was her first relatively good night of sleep in a long while. The red numbers that now were flashing 7:10 look fuzzier and less readable than usual, although she knows it can’t possibly be 7:30 since the loud crackling of the local morning radio hasn’t begun yet, which has been her alarm since her dad had set it for her when she was a kid. It takes several minutes for Crystal to realize that the fogginess of the already barely-there clock numbers is due to the fact that she had not yet put her glasses on. She reaches over to the wooden side table and places her round, semi-transparent blue glasses on, nearly poking her eye out with them. Now bespectacled with the small chaotic colorful universe that is her bedroom coming into focus, Crystal returns to glaring at the goddamn clock, waiting until the radio switches on so at least she can feel somewhat ready for the day. Finally, after what seems like forever, the clock shows 7:30. There is a loud click and some static. Then, the local morning radio station begins blaring - her favorite radio program begins. Crystal feels herself relax into the nostalgia that was the morning radio program – a program called “Roll Call!” hosted by local celebrity, Ms. Jackie Cox. Jackie hadn’t always hosted the show, but since former host, Michelle Visage went on to do other things the summer before Crystal began high school, Jackie had been the one to wake Crystal up every weekday morning with her hilarious impressions, calming voice and important, worldly messages she shared with her listeners. It was almost like listening to an old-timey radio play except Jackie Cox wasn’t some sort of far-off dead voice actor from the 1920s. She has become one of Crystal’s closest confidants.</p><p>Jackie’s quips and sing-songy voice continue to fill Crystal’s small apartment as the coffee-haired girl gets ready for a full day of work. She gulps down tea that is far too hot for her throat to handle, showers, and picks an outfit that consists of a loudly-pattered purple and yellow button-down adorned with a bolo tie, paired with black jeans. Looking in the mirror and twisting a bit to view the outfit from multiple angles, Crystal mutters to herself, “lesbian alert!” She makes herself laugh way too hard.</p><p>Not even bothering to do anything with her now lemony-fresh curls besides putting in some bobby pins to get her hair out of her face for the workday, Crystal finishes listening to Jackie’s last segment of “Roll Call!” as she slips her docs and yellow raincoat on, knowing full well that every time she has forgotten her raincoat on rainy days like this, the rain inevitably comes down harder, soaking Crystal to the bone and more importantly, her curls. This would result in a very sour mood before a long day of dealing with picky customers even begins, so Crystal, knowing her curls will stay intact, feels extra proud of herself for remembering to put the coat on. Even small things like this can be difficult for her to keep track of sometimes. Crystal reaches for her big ring of keys that sits on a small wooden table near the front door of the apartment when Jackie, in an uncharacteristically long sign-off message introduces a new member of the “Roll Call!” team. Apparently, some new kid named Gigi Goode is going is going to be hosting a new segment within “Roll Call!” called “Goode Art” which Jackie makes a point of spelling out for the listeners so everyone knew there was an <em>e</em> at the end of Goode. Jackie explains that Gigi’s mission for “Goode Art” is to cover the artsy goings-on around the neighborhood and talk about fashion as well. Crystal sort of brushes it off, thinking that while it’s sort of weird to talk about arts events first thing in the morning, it could be kind of cool to listen to something like that as part of her wake-up routine. After all, Crystal has always been a quintessential lesbian art kid. It isn’t until Gigi gets on the mic to say a quick hello to her new listeners that Crystal pays full attention to what this new segment could be all about.</p><p>“Ahoy,” she says, coolly and with a lot of confidence contained in such a small word. “My name is Gigi Goode with an e, your newest “Roll Call!” team member! I am so happy to be here working in this neighborhood at the legendary W-RPDR station. I hope you all enjoy “Goode Art” every morning and I can’t wait to meet all of you <em>Goooode</em> people out there!” Gigi’s emphasis on the word Goode the last part of her greeting makes Crystal chuckle. Crystal has never heard a voice like that. So smooth and eloquent, with each word being emphasized just so. Jackie’s voice is like your favorite fun aunt’s voice, if she hosted a variety show. It always makes Crystal feel like things are normal. Like her dad was leaning in the doorway, smiling proudly that Crystal, no matter how much she was growing up, still was listening to “Roll Call!”</p><p>Gigi’s voice, however, after just one sentence has managed to bring about a new, unfamiliar feeling in Crystal. A feeling that she hasn’t really felt in years. Excited? Nervous? Itchy? All of the above. She can’t put her finger on it. Crystal thinks hard, trying to imagine what Gigi could look like with that voice but for one final time that morning, her eyes fall upon the green alarm clock and she realizes she has to go. As she steps outside of her apartment, she breathes in the damp air, still thinking about how intriguing this Gigi person could be…er…rather her radio segment could be. <em>“Sure, Crystal, you’re definitely only intrigued by the segment.”</em></p><p>After a total of five minutes of walking around the corner from her apartment to her destination in the slightly harder rain, Crystal stops herself in front of an old and quite rusty, black wrought-iron gate. She opens the gate with a creak worthy of a haunted house and goes down a small set of stairs, the wet concrete of the steps scraping against the ridged soles of her docs. She secures her phone in the pocket of her raincoat and huffs as she takes out the huge ring of keys and unlocks the multiple heavy-duty locks. She enters the building, sighs out loud to an empty space, and flips on the lights. The old fluorescents that sit in rows on the ceiling and the twinkle lights that are woven around parts of the walls buzz quietly as the space comes to life. There in front of her are thousands of vinyl records.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Methyd Records</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Fucking overpriced brunch,” Crystal thinks to herself and scoffs.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another chapter! I wrote a couple out in-full already so I'm just editing and making sure they're as good as they can be!! Hopefully I'll be able to update as regularly as possible and keep the creativity flowing &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>There in front of her are thousands of vinyl records. </em>
</p><p>Crystal, the very same girl who forgets to put on her eyeglasses in the morning and loves morning radio, is the owner of this record store. She inherited the store from her parents when they passed just 3 years ago in a car accident. At the time of the accident, which Crystal always hesitates to think too much about while simultaneously being unable to stop thinking about it at the most inconvenient times, Crystal was 21 years old and her younger brother, just 14. Crystal went from being a hopeful collegiate art school graduate, packing up her belongings from her childhood apartment and moving to New York City with her then secret but seemingly serious girlfriend Nicky, to a full-on adult. A full-on adult living in the very apartment she grew up in, filled with sweet childhood memories as well as unrelenting reminders of her parents’ absence. Crystal’s entire life had to be put on hold because she needed to be a guardian to her younger brother and the new owner of <em>Methyd Records. </em>She of course never once thinks that any of this is an inconvenient roadblock to her life – she loves her brother with her whole heart and knows she could never give up the store because it pays the bills and it’s a staple of the community, but Crystal can’t help but feel stagnant. Like all of her motivation to grow and explore and create has fallen away.</p><p>Since her parents’ passing, with the help of her brother and best childhood friends, Heidi, Jaida and Aiden as well as a lot of anxiety, tears, and hard work, Crystal has been running Methyd Records herself. Quite successfully for the most part. Methyd Records takes up a large basement space of a rundown brick building. In a neighborhood filling up with vape shops, brunch spots, deeply confusing skate apparel stores and sparkling white-tiled boutiques adorned with vague neon signs selling two white T-shirts and overpriced whatever people were juicing these days, Methyd Records remains a cornerstone of the neighborhood. A little rough around the edges, full of every genre and sub-genre you could think of, and ever-shimmering with its permanent sheen of glitter embedded into the floor (no doubt accumulating from the many years Crystal “how do you feel about glitter” Methyd herself padding around the aisles and in the back office as a kid, teenager and now as the 24-year-old owner).</p><p>The old store requires a lot of daily maintenance and just like her parents, Crystal always arrives at the store early. Now that it is nearing 8:15 am, Crystal can see some of the hipster-y shops starting to prepare for their late-morning openings. <em>“Fucking overpriced brunch,” </em>Crystal thinks to herself and scoffs.</p><p>The stores around her peddling what she considers nonsense (colorful and fun, but nonsense, nonetheless) reminds Crystal of how happy she is that her favorite landmarks, the last true remnants of the neighborhood that Crystal, Heidi, Aiden and Jaida grew up in besides Methyd Records continue to exist. There’s a pizza shop a floor above the record store that often plays competing loud music (mostly Italian-American classics) at night while the mouth-watering scent of the owners and their daughter Jan serving family meal to their staff wafts into Methyd Records. Next closest to Methyd Records, just two doors down is Brita’s chaotic explosion of a vintage shop “You Brita Werk” where almost all of Crystal’s wardrobe comes from. Brita has always loved Crystal, the big-mouthed (both figuratively and literally) queen of vintage taking pride in clothing her favorite neighborhood lesbian. In the back of Brita’s shop, a red velvet curtain reveals an entirely different world. A small queer erotica shop, “City Full of Sin” that the local authorities have tried to close down for years but have never succeeded. Brita’s beautiful and playfully- shady cousin, Dahlia runs that part of the shop and she, along with Brita have been pillars of the queer community for as long as Crystal could remember.</p><p>In a standalone building a block and a half away from Methyd Records is W-RPDR where Jackie (and now Gigi, Crystal supposed) hosted <em>“Roll Call!” </em>Then, further down that same street is the candle-pin bowling alley, owned by another of Crystal’s favorite neighborhood legends, Widow. Crystal frequents the station to see Jackie, the pizza shop to hang with Jan and her family and Brita and Dahlia’s as well, but Widow’s bowling alley holds an especially special place in her heart.</p><p>She and Heidi worked at the bowling alley in high school always prided themselves on the music they would play for the whole alley to enjoy.</p><p>
  <em>It all started one particularly difficult day when Crystal was struggling with her sexuality and whether or not to come out to her parents. Luckily, the alley served as her gap-toothed whistle-filled pressure-free happy place. Heidi, who loved Crystal and the fact that she was a lesbian just like her and Aiden, noticed Crystal was particularly down about the thought of coming out to her family. In an effort to cheer her up a bit, Heidi grabbed the cassette tape she knew Crystal had in her backpack while Crystal was slumped over the front desk. Heidi shuffled around Crystal to get to the boombox that played both cassettes and CDs and began blasting Crystal’s mix which was, despite her emotional state, filled with upbeat disco numbers. Alicia Bridges’ infectious energy while singing “I Love the Nightlife” filled the whole alley and the energy just changed. Everything was brighter. The people were happier. “Alicia Bridges, huh, Crystal? Can’t hide how gay you are even if you tried” Heidi and Crystal laughed hysterically as they watched people bowl. </em>
</p><p>Crystal loves that memory.</p><p>Crystal and Heidi’s music selections became so popular among the bowlers, that during the second half of high school, Widow tasked Crystal with bringing by a different combination of records that she would curate so Methyd Records got more exposure and the alley could play Crystal and Heidi’s music even after they moved away. Since Crystal lives in the very same place she always has, to this day, every Sunday, Crystal delivers a curated stack of vinyl to the alley with a meticulous handwritten list of albums included alongside their descriptions and what vibe Crystal thought they fit best. Although her days of shining bowling balls and air-freshening used shoes while overdramatically gagging with Heidi were over, Crystal still needs this ritual of delivering the new collection of records, talking to Widow and some of the locals, and collecting the records she delivered the week before. Like a lending library. Jackie’s show didn’t air on Saturdays or Sundays and Methyd Records is famously closed on Sundays because Crystal’s religious mother never thought it was right to do anything but rest, pray, and be with family on the sabbath. This meant that Crystal, continuing to run the store as it always has been run, had to have something she could rely on to keep her grounded during the latter half of the weekends. She needed something familiar that she could fill her brain space, weigh it down with something positive, or it would just float away and find the grief again. The Saturday ritual of searching for the records she’d deliver to the alley and the Sunday ritual of delivering the records, catching up on town gossip with Widow, and dicking around in the bowling alley’s somewhat disturbing clown-filled vintage arcade full of fortune tellers, marionettes and arm wrestling machines, functioned as Crystals weekend mental escape.</p><p>Crystal smiles as she thinks about the arcade. Housed in one of the corners of the alley, designated by a creaky wooden floor that starkly contrast the dizzying neon pattern of the main bowling alley carpet, the arcade is one of those weird things that Crystal, Heidi and the very spooky Aiden absolutely love, but Jaida and Jan refuse to participate in. It’s just so beautifully weird and random, in Crystal's opinion. Last time Crystal delivered the records to the alley, she noticed the arcade had acquired a new machine. Widow loves collecting oddities to put on display in her bowling alley. The new machine is a palm reading machine that you could place your hand in to get scanned and the machine would spit out a small receipt telling you things about your future. It has little to nothing to do with the art of palm reading and rather just tells you random facts - if you love food more than sex or what age you’ll meet your true love and dumb things like that, but Crystal remembers the new machine with piqued interest as she turns the Methyd Record’s door sign from closed to open. She decides that when she delivers the next batch of records this weekend, she’ll try it. Maybe it’d somehow give her some clarity about what’s going to happen next in her stagnant life. <em>"Crystal, how stupid can you be,"</em> she rolls her eyes at herself.</p><p>Or maybe, it’ll just be fun and mean absolutely nothing. She sighs again and begins to do to the more intense pre-opening chores before customers, plentiful now that all the hipsters had moved in, show up.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ugh I love a good small neighborhood setting &lt;3 thanks so much for reading! I'm excited to introduce  more characters and go deeper into the story and the characters!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. That's Your Future!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Well, I turned 24 in April and I just met Aiden’s new gauges which are hot! So...” Crystal jokes while getting on one knee to propose to Aiden’s ears, trying to deflect Heidi’s announcement.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another chapter!! This one is longer than the others because I just love the characters so much, I couldn't stop. &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>A break, finally. </em>
</p><p>It’s early Saturday morning now and Crystal feels like she can momentarily breathe. As she makes herself a cup of scalding green tea, she perks up at the sound of Dahlia’s boombox blaring 90s R&amp;B through the streets as Dahlia rollerblades for exercise. Crystal leans out of the small, draped kitchen window above the sink and waves to the picturesque Dahlia donning a green spandex bodysuit and long pigtails, the sound of Crystal’s stacked wooden bracelets clacking together in their signature style. Crystal smiles at the fact that despite the physical layout of the neighborhood and its stores changing, the people never seem to. In fact, the neighborhood embraced neighborhood legends like Dahlia and Brita so much (although most of the white-bread crowd did not know about the queer erotica shop), that a Saturday morning dose of D’Angelo was welcomed by most and complained about by very few.</p><p>As much as Crystal loves D’Angelo and watching Dahlia spin around lampposts, Crystal is still very aware of the lack of <em>“Role Call!” </em>on Saturdays. As she sips her tea in the kitchen and listens to Dahlia’s music fade, Crystal can’t help but feel slightly more disappointed that she wouldn’t be hearing Gigi Goode’s radio segment until Monday. <em>“Crystal, it’s just a voice. Don’t get worked up now.” </em></p><p>It isn’t until Crystal sits down on the edge of her bed to slip on a pair of doodled-on green vans to accompany her patch-covered ripped jeans and a white tank that revealed all of her tattoos, that she realizes just how tired her body is from standing and working the store largely by herself on Friday. In the first two years after taking over the store, Crystal’s younger brother would help her on Friday’s since he had half days at school. This has recently changed since Crystal’s brother is now 17, studying for both school and standardized tests and is trying to be part of every extracurricular club the school has to offer in order to get into the best colleges. Crystal admires her little brother’s drive, a drive she herself didn’t have during high school except when it came to art class. However, his busy schedule and the ever-looming threat of his move out of the neighborhood and off to college, leaves Crystal with more work than any one person can handle alone. But she has to handle it. She always does.</p><p>Crystal takes the rest of the morning on Saturday before a late-afternoon store opening to put together the next batch of records she will deliver to the bowling alley on Sunday. As she lazily begins to leaf through some drawers of records in the genres that she’s really feeling at that moment – post-punk and west coast jazz, she sees a tall, lanky girl in a red leather bell-bottom jumpsuit and white boots with auburn hair parted down the middle and feathered perfectly out to the sides, walking jauntily towards the W-RPDR station. Crystal observes this never-before-seen girl with curiosity as she moves her narrow hips just slightly from side to side while her hands are placed daintily at her sides. As she comes to the part of the sidewalk that is directly in front of Methyd Records, Crystal notices that she has headphones in and is clearly listening to something upbeat based on her walk. Crystal cracks a smile but then immediately feels stupid. <em>“Crystal, what are you even thinking?” </em>Crystal feels embarrassed for staring in the first place and even more embarrassed as she cranes her neck to continue watching the girl walk away towards the W-RPDR station. Crystal doesn’t even really see her face, but that doesn’t stop Crystal from finding her whole vibe attractive. <em>Really attractive. </em>The curly-haired record store owner punches herself mentally. <em>“Stop looking at girls who don’t even know you exist. Or don’t care. It’s always the same with you, Crystal Methyd,” </em>she thinks, wincing, thinking back to her tumultuous and devastating 21<sup>st</sup> year on the planet. </p><p>After a few moments of some increasingly dark thoughts about her past that always lead her to think about her parents, Crystal abruptly turns to the aisles of vinyl, all vertically stacked neatly in worn wooden troughs that sported a myriad of signatures and stickers from past customers on its surface. Below the troughs are wooden drawers that reveal even more records and underneath those, are crates of random $1 45s and tapes that anyone could dig through if they had the commitment and curiosity. Crystal’s dad built the troughs himself and Crystal’s mom gave up on trying to prevent people from vandalizing them by chiding them in Spanish. Crystal was often on the receiving end of those chides, as she was the prime enabler of the trough decoration. Crystal, as much as she respected her parents as a kid and as a teenager, Crystal also loved to do exactly what they did not want her doing. In this neighborhood which was so tight-knit, there weren’t a whole lot of opportunities for real rebellion, like burning shit down like the femmes in her favorite post-punk bands sang about. Doing little things like bonding with customers and encouraging them to decorate the sides and backs of the troughs was Crystal’s small rebellion, which was a source of pride for Crystal.</p><p>This pride though, would immediately turn into stinging embarrassment watching her Mexican mom yell at her in front of (mostly) white customers. Now, however, Crystal would give anything to hear the stern, but lyrical strings of Spanish words her mom would come up with to get Crystal to stop misbehaving.</p><p>Crystal literally has to shake her head free of any thoughts that weren’t about her record-selection process, as she finds herself feeling overwhelming grief thinking about her mom. Head shaking does not fix a thing. She feels faint and hot as she looks to the check-out counter and sees a stack of bills waiting for her to attend to. She sees the floors need more sweeping and that in her haste to leave the store the previous night, she realizes she forgot to record some of the purchases that were made during the window that the electronic card reader that prints receipts was jammed. Crystal is frozen, feeling so alone and riddled with anxiety over the most mundane of tasks. With no desire to be a burden to another soul, Crystal doesn’t reach for her phone in her back pocket. Jaida, Heidi, Aiden and even Jan are easily just one call away, but when Crystal is overcome, nothing feels further away.</p><p>She shakes her head again and furiously runs her index and middle fingers over the grooves of her cracked nail polish until she feels more focused on the one store-related task that actually relaxes her a bit. Crystal begins to walk slowly down one aisle of vinyl, still feeling warm in the face and a bit weak. She throws herself into looking at a few more records to add to this week’s collection. The late afternoon comes and the store opens just for a few hours. It’s not as busy as some Saturdays, so Crystal is relieved. Jan comes down from the pizza shop with a tray full of colorful cookies to hang with Crystal for a while and buy her family some more used Italian-American records, which Crystal always sets aside just for the Mantiones.</p><p>Sunday arrives. The day Crystal is most likely to feel the most. It was her mother’s day. Church and a big dinner to follow. Her Sunday routine though, is something she can rely on and Crystal, determined to fill the space of a mostly empty day, is set to deliver the new set of records to the  bowling alley. This time, she has Heidi come with her because Heidi, with a day off from studying for her graduate school exams, has some free time. Heidi holds the crate that contains seven records. The Slits and Dave Brubeck are the featured artists of the collection today. Femme-powered post-punk and cool jazz seem to encapsulate both sides of Crystal’s mood – so frustrated with the hard stuff she could burst at any moment, and a more distant feeling of calm that she always feels wash over her when any of her friends are around.</p><p>“You feeling as blessed and highly favored as I am today, Crys?” Heidi asks, shooting a gapped and toothy smile at Crystal, batting her eyelashes as she readjusts her grip on the crate of records. Heidi, slightly shorter than Crystal, is wearing a loose-fitting red tank top with a light knit sweater on top and jean cut-offs. Crystal always finds it very funny that Heidi dresses for multiple seasons in one single outfit.</p><p>Heidi is also sporting a blank baseball cap over her ringlet curls and her large eyes are scrunched up as she smiles at Crystal. As sunshiny as Heidi is, all Crystal can really pay attention to is the weird array of feelings that are bubbling up. Happy to see Heidi. Overjoyed and calm, really. But sad, so sad about her brother’s imminent departure to college and her parents of course. Still not completely over her mild panic attack at the store yesterday. Also, ocular-migraine level stressed about all the bills and the upcoming bills and the bills that will come after that. And finally, deeply silly for having any feeling at all about the mystery girl Crystal saw traipse across the sidewalk in front of Methyd Records. Crystal, so deep in thought about the confusing jumble of emotions, only snaps out of her trance at the obnoxious sound of Heidi’s flip-flops smacking the pavement.</p><p>“Ahhhh!” Crystal responds in one of her trademarked Crystal noises, her hands going right to her cheeks in exasperation.</p><p>“That bad, huh?” Heidi asks, the smile that was on her face fading and being replaced with concern. Heidi knows Crystal like the back of her hand. Crystal was feeling overwhelmed, by what looks like a lot of things, and most likely wasn’t taking very good care of herself.</p><p>“Nooo I just. A lot on my mind. Customers. Customers are great but. And then? And then I…rent…bills…my brother needs to go to college and he’s going to move away. It’s hard. And he’s going to want to move away after college too and I’m thinking about that and then the store of course. And then. AND THEN?! Just….and I saw this GIRL my GOD…literally so beautiful but I didn’t even fucking see her face?!” Crystal couldn’t finish a single thought. They all came pouring out at once. But, in her increasingly frantic state, she does realize what she just said to Heidi. <em>A girl. She mentioned a girl. </em>A topic that has not come up in a very long time.  </p><p>“A giiiiirl? We’ll get back to everything else, but a girl, Crystal? Did my ears deceive me?” Heidi retorts in surprise, exaggeratingly clutching her invisible pearls. Heidi knows that Crystal has so much going on beyond the girl, but Heidi goes with something to lighten the mood, at least for now.</p><p>Crystal rolls her eyes and can’t believe that the tall girl she had seen the previous day made it into her stream of consciousness. “Ahh. It’s literally not even close to being a thing cause I barely saw her. She just walked towards the radio station. I’ve never seen her…it’s not important in the slightest!” Crystal assured Heidi, face burning up and voice cracking. <em>“One glance, Crystal? Really, queen?” </em></p><p>“Okay, listen. After our delivery, we will talk though all of this with Jaida and Aiden too because I am really worried about you and you are NOT getting out of it, you hear? First though, we’re gonna try that new machine at the arcade. The one that Widow got. I saw some kids talking about getting their love lives predicted. I wanna know your looooove prospects with this gal.” Heidi puts a reassuring hand on Crystal’s shoulder. Crystal looks at Heidi thankfully at first, but immediately recognizes that Heidi’s eyes are also full mischief. Heidi has always had a way of comforting Crystal while also pushing her to do new things or get out of her head. Crystal loves her immensely for it.</p><p>“Fineee,” Crystal whines, crossing her arms over her chest, as if to give herself a reassuring hug before her fortune is revealed.</p><p>Heidi and Crystal walk into the backdoor of the bowling alley. Heidi frowns slightly as they enter, seeing how Crystal’s whole body just seemed bent over, like she was holding onto something far too heavy for her to carry alone. Heidi, not wanting to push Crystal too much to share what is going on while making sure to show Crystal she was there for her, puts an emphasis on the little gestures such as opening the door for her and squeezing her hand whenever Crystal sighs deeply as they walk through the back door, through the kitchen and storage areas and into the main part of the bowling alley. Heidi wouldn’t be where she is without Crystal and her best friend has done so much for everyone for so long, Heidi makes extra sure Crystal feels taken care of, even if her gestures are small ones.</p><p>As Crystal and Heidi enter the bowling alley, the scent of pine and wood cleaner hit their nostrils, quickly followed by the undeniable floral scent of perfume that could only belong to the stunning bowling alley owner, Widow.</p><p>“My girls!” Widow chirps, her slightly raspy voice wrapping around Crystal and Heidi like a fuzzy security blanket. Widow, always made up and looking stunning, is wearing a long black dress, the most intricate red silk house slippers and her hair was done to perfection.  </p><p>“Hi Ms. Widow” Heidi muses, as she walks into Widow’s open arms. Widow gives Heidi a tight squeeze and after a moment, pulls Crystal into the hug as well. Widow smiles again and releases them from the hug, keeping her arms on the shoulders of the young women she saw grow up before her eyes. Widow looks at Crystal with concern and signals her concern to Heidi. Heidi nods and squeezes Crystal’s hand again, thankful for Widow’s intuition to not pepper Crystal with questions about what is wrong.</p><p>After some light conversation with Widow and explaining some things about the fragile condition of one of the records Crystal chose, the two girls head over to palm reading machine in the arcade. Upon their approach to the machine, Heidi nearly has to yank Crystal’s arm out of its socket in order to get Crystal to come closer to it. Crystal huffs and reluctantly places her hand inside the designated palm reading area while Heidi gleefully watches. After a few moments, the machine spits out a tiny paper receipt with a moon and stars logo on it. Crystal immediately regrets doing this. As much as she loves this arcade and Heidi, the embarrassment of a reading about her love life especially if it somehow predicts anything about her dumb nothing, barely-there crush at 24 years old, no less was too much for Crystal to bear. Crystal rips the receipt from the slot and shoves it in Heidi’s hands.</p><p>“Just read it to me. Please tell me that I am destined to live forever alone, drowning in dusty vinyl,” Crystal says, voice laden with sarcasm. <em>“But actually though, sounds about right,” </em>Crystal thinks.</p><p>Crystal stands next to Heidi, ready for southern belle to read out her fortune, laugh and crumple it up, never to be discussed again. Heidi however, looks at the receipt, laughs out loud at a decibel that Crystal is not expecting, and bolts like lightning out of the bowling alley and in the direction of Methyd Records. Crystal’s eyes widen. Dumbstruck, Crystal looks at the doors Heidi just sprinted out of and sprints after her. Crystal yells a quick goodbye to Widow and at whoever just began their shift at the front desk. It’s Rock, a more recent friend of Crystals, but Crystal has very little time to actually think about who she was saying goodbye to. She runs like the wind after Heidi, yelling after her and swearing loudly as her docs pinched her toes, causing Brita and Dahlia to peek outside of the store. They roll their eyes and laugh, knowing full well that shenanigans between these two, no matter what age they are, are commonplace.</p><p>Crystal is gasping for breath as she arrives at the record store and bursts through the door. She cries out, “what the actual fuck, Heidi Nina Closet? I am <em>not </em>athletic and I’m getting old!” Crystal doesn’t even get a response from Heidi before she looks up and sees Aiden and Jaida standing with Heidi, smirking.</p><p>“What?” Crystal asks, trying to act casual by putting one of her arms above her head and leaning to one side, popping one hip out.<em>“Totally cool, Crystal. Very cool.” </em></p><p>The gothy Aiden speaks first, her low, slow drawl becoming more animated as her sentence goes on. “Looks like you’re getting married, Crys!” Aiden loves teasing Crystal lovingly.</p><p>“Ex…excuse me?” Crystal was very confused.</p><p>“The future holds that you, Crystal Elizabeth Methyd, are gonna fall in love with and marry the person you first meet when you are twenty fucking four years old. You’re 24 now, bitch!!!! Heidi screams out, unable to hold it in any longer. Yeah, they are all in their mid to late twenties, but the four of them still act like no time has gone by when they get together.</p><p>“Well, I turned 24 in April and I just met Aiden’s new gauges which are <em>hot! </em>So…<em>” </em>Crystal jokes while getting on one knee to propose to Aiden’s ears, trying to deflect Heidi’s announcement. Aiden doesn’t respond with words, just a middle finger and dopey smile.</p><p>“GOD! It’s not Aiden’s gauges, you idiot! Although, your gauges are sick.” Jaida pipes up, reassuring Aiden that her brand new white gauges look really good. “Heidi told us. The girl you saw <em>yesterday</em>. That’s your <em>future</em>, chile!” Crystal looks at Jaida with complete and utter confusion. “I saw her earlier today at the market. Great body. Great hair. She’s apparently that new girl working with Jackie. She’s totally new to town. Hehe.” Jaida said with a flirtatious lilt in her voice, sticking out her tongue slightly, as she always does. Crystal’s whole world is shaken by this revelation of who that girl is, but isn’t surprised at all that Jaida knows this. The essence of beauty always knows. Most likely from Widow. Or Brita. Or Dahlia.</p><p>“You mean THAT’S Gigi Goooode?” Crystal chokes out, not meaning to glare intensely at her best friends. Crystal is unable to process. Crystal couldn’t have really pictured that level of perfection after hearing the introduction to Gigi’s radio segment. Although she should have known, considering her <em>voice.</em></p><p>All three of Crystal’s friends stop talking for a moment wondering how Crystal put two and two together so fast. Then they all come to the simultaneous realization that Crystal’s nothing if she’s not a religious super fan of morning radio. Crystal has no idea what was going on, why her friends were being like this, why the fortune seems so important and why she’s so affected by Gigi’s voice and the quick glimpse of her that Crystal got the previous day.</p><p>The rest of that Sunday afternoon is spent sweeping floors, taking inventory and organizing records with her friends, all while thinking about how weirdly excited she is to hear Gigi’s voice on the radio the next morning. Nothing could distract her from her excitement about this, however unfounded it might be. Not even Jaida, Aiden, and Heidi loudly singing <em>Crystal fell in love with the Radio Star</em> in the tune of the Buggle’s <em>Video Killed the Radio Star. </em>Now Crystal could never play that record again, at least not around her friends. Not without blushing like an idiot. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ooo a Gigi sighting!! And a Rock sighting!! There's lots more to come for all the characters, I'm especially stoked to write more Widow and of course, our precious best friends Heidi and Crystal!! So so much more to come including a meet cute for the ages &lt;3 thanks so much for reading!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Facilitating Your Destiny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Aren’t you supposed to be an old lady?” Gigi asks Crystal in disbelief, immediately regretting it.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A new chapter! Probably my favorite so far!! It's quite long and has lot going on so get ready &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s 5:30 am on Monday morning and Gigi sits up in her bed covered in chic blue satin sheets, excited but nervous for the day ahead of her. There isn’t a lazy bone in Gigi’s body this morning because of the excitement. It’s her first official day working at W-RPDR, the first day where she actually gets to share her segment “Goode Art” with the steady and loyal “Roll Call!” fanbase. She has big shoes to fill since Jackie is such a beloved local name, but Gigi, ever-confident and externally cool no matter how stressed she is on the inside, is determined that today will be a smashing success. She swings her mile-long legs over the side of her wooden bedframe. She pats the bed on either side of her hips, very content that she went with a very clean, modern and minimalist look for her first real apartment. At 22 years old, Gigi has taste far beyond her years.</p><p>Gigi saunters over to her closet, filled with perfectly-tailored dresses and jumpsuits. She sighs as she remembers all the memories of her and her mom making these clothes, making sure they fit her slim frame and accentuated her legs. Gigi absolutely loves every garment hanging in her closet, but can’t help but feel very far from home and her mother whenever she puts them on. The auburn-haired beauty settles on a purple mini dress with sheer green sleeves that puffed out a bit at her shoulders and came inward in a thick cuff at her wrist. The dress is adorned with large green buttons and Gigi unravels an accessory bag that hangs on the inside of the closet to find a matching green headband. Fully dressed and with a full face of makeup despite taking on a new role as a radio personality, Gigi stuffs a classic Gigi Goode breakfast – a handful of popcorn from the cupboard, in her mouth, nearly falls over as she slips on her favorite pair of pumps, and sets off for the radio station, her transparent holographic umbrella in-hand. Gigi, no matter how unseen she was going to go on any given day, refuses to have her feathered hair or custom garments get ruined by rain. <em>“It rains a lot here,” </em>Gigi thinks to herself knowing she has to get used to this weather, so drastically different from what she was used to in Los Angeles.</p><p>Stepping out of her apartment with headphones playing Blondie’s <em>Heart of Glass, </em>her favorite walking song, Gigi bounds onto the sidewalk, opens her umbrella and begins heading to what felt like her bigger, brighter future. Then she remembers that she is new to the neighborhood and is deeply inept at remembering directions. Being confused and lost a good amount of the time makes up a large part of Gigi’s personality, however she does not let this dampen her high expectations for the day and keeps walking in a general direction that seems like it could lead to the radio station. About 10 minutes of walking and a couple of wrong turns, Gigi finds herself at a somewhat familiar destination. She looks at the wrought-iron fence and the large window of Methyd Records. Gigi smiles, happy that in a neighborhood that is much smaller than the one she grew up in, has gems like this. She vaguely remembers walking by the old record shop a few days ago, but Gigi, in order to stay focused and motivated tends to shut out the world with the music of the 1970s and 1980s. The rain is starting to come down a bit harder so Gigi decides to stand under the awning jutting out over the large window of Methyd Records.</p><p>Being so close to Methyd Records, Gigi is able to see into the currently closed store. She can’t believe just how many aisles of records the store has. For whatever reason, Gigi tries to look into the store further, trying to puzzle out why the floor of the store looks so sparkly. Her detective work is interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. She is met by a voice so impossibly exuberant for how early it is, asking her, “what are you up to there?”</p><p>Gigi jumps and whips her head around to see a girl about four inches shorter than her with long blonde hair that is half tied up. She is donning short purple pajama shorts and a white T-shirt reads, “Mantione’s Pizza” in large red letters. She has a large black trash bag in her hand. Gigi relaxes knowing it is a girl around her age that caught her looking into a closed storefront, rather than some early-morning stalker.</p><p>“Uh…hi…sorry I stopped here to get out of the rain and I was curious about the store. Not in a creepy way, I promise. My mom loves records and it would be fun to send some of her favorites home i.e. ABBA, so I was curious.” Gigi is stammering and is not sure why, considering talking eloquently is her vocation. Feeling like she is over-explaining as she sees a smile spread over the girl’s face, Gigi takes a breath and introduces herself in an effort to quash any further word-vomit. “I’m Gigi…Gigi Goode.”</p><p>Gigi holds out her hand after introducing herself and in response, the blonde holds up a perfectly-manicured finger to signal, “one second,” tosses the giant trash bag into the blue bin to the left of the building, and stretches out her hand to meet Gigi’s as she returns to Gigi’s side under the awning. “Ooo the mysterious Gigi Goode in the flesh! I’m Jan. Let’s play some basketball!”</p><p>Gigi had no idea how to respond to this. <em>“Is everyone in this neighborhood like this? So upbeat and random?” </em>Gigi asks herself. Jan picks up on Gigi’s confusion and reassures her, “Sorry, that Fergie joke never lands. I didn’t mean to scare you. I live and work upstairs from Methyd Records. My family owns the pizza shop and I have to take the trash out in the early mornings as punishment for stealing the family car to go to a concert.” Gigi feels more at ease, knowing Jan isn’t going to make a big deal about Gigi’s weird desire to look into the store.</p><p>“You stole a car to go to a concert?” Gigi asks, laughing at the idea of doing anything that rebellious with the mom she has.</p><p>“Yeah. I feel bad about it, but it was because the girl I am head over heels for, Jaida, wanted to go. I couldn’t say no,” Jan explains. Gigi can’t believe Jan is being so open with her after only a few minutes of knowing her. <em>“Openly queer. Maybe to everyone? Could this be a home for real?” </em>Gigi asks herself, excited at the prospect of becoming more of her full self in this new place.</p><p>“Well, that makes sense. How long have you lived here?” Gigi asks pointing to the apartment above the store. Gigi is curious as to why a girl who is definitely in her twenties still could get into so much trouble with her parents.</p><p>“Oh, forever. I come from a big, tight-knit family. Us Mantione’s don’t really move away. I take college courses nearby and help my family with the shop. At least rent is free and I can save up enough to start a band and travel around.” Gigi likes how Jan just gives out a ton of information at once. It makes Gigi feel like she has known Jan for a while. There isn’t that same discomfort and disconnect Gigi would feel with strangers and even supposedly good friends back in LA. It feels easy. Gigi wants to ask more about Jan’s future band plans, but she is cut off by the blonde.</p><p>“So, Gigi Goode, the new radio kid! I recognized you from your voice. I can’t believe I’m meeting the neighborhood’s newest celebrity and with that outfit, you definitely look like one! What are you doing loitering in front of Methyd Records, hm?” Jan’s voice reverberates with positivity and undeniable energy, piercing through the sound of rain hitting the awning.</p><p>“Oh! So you listen to the show?” Gigi asks, mostly to avoid the loitering question, but also interested in feedback about her upcoming segment.</p><p>“My parents always have it on in the mornings over breakfast. “Roll Call!” even before Dean Martin or Rosemary Clooney. In this place, “Roll Call!” is like brushing your teeth in the morning. You gotta do it every day and it prevents gum disease.” Jan’s analogy doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, but Gigi understands the sentiment and smiles.</p><p>“Well, thank you! I’m recording my first segment today in less than two hours and now the expectations seem even higher,” Gigi shares, feeling just slightly more nervous than she was before about her first day. Internally, of course as she is never one to wear her emotions on her green, puffy sleeves.</p><p>“You’re gonna do great! My whole family will be listening. And Crystal! Oh my god. Crystal! She’s the biggest fan of the show I’ve ever met and the artsiest person in town, so you already have a built-in fan, guaranteed. I’m sure she’s stoked about having someone doing an arts segment.” Gigi watches Jan gesticulate about whoever this Crystal is, as if Jan is an appliance salesperson, selling Gigi a state-of-the-art Crystal with a guarantee.</p><p>“Thank you! I hope your family likes it! May I ask, who is Crystal?” Gigi asks, curiously.</p><p>Jan gasps. “Oh! THE Crystal Methyd. She’s the owner of Methyd Records here. “If you ever need a good cup of tea go to Crystal. If you ever need glitter of any kind, go to Crystal…”</p><p><em>“That explains the super sparkly floor,” </em>Gigi thinks, feeling like Sherlock Holmes solving a case.  </p><p>“If you need someone to make you feel really at home here since you’re new, I also suggest Crystal. She’s extremely sweet and her store is one of the best places to stop into. Oh! And since you seem really into the store and you’re looking for records for your mom, then definitely go to Crystal. She’s the music expert!” Jan exclaims, running out of breath at the end of her sentence.</p><p>Gigi makes a mental note to definitely meet Crystal since Jan is describing her as such a neighborhood staple. Unlike in the big sprawling city of LA, Gigi wants to make an effort to make actual friends and be part of a community. After Jan’s description of Crystal, Gigi pictures a possibly elderly woman who crafts with glitter and can give her music recommendations and make her feel like a regular. Gigi feels warm and fuzzy about this idea.  </p><p>Realizing she should go help Jackie out before the show begins and take some time to collect herself, Gigi thanks Jan for the advice and the directions to the station from Methyd Records. Before Gigi steps out into the rain again, Jan insists Gigi come by in the evening for some free pizza to celebrate her first day at W-RPDR. Gigi agrees and feels more bolstered that her first recording will go well because at the very least, her new acquaintance Jan and her family will be listening and so will a sweet old woman named Crystal Methyd.</p><p>Gigi restarts her music and arrives at the front doors of the station just as When In Rome’s <em>The Promise </em>ends. Gigi puts on her best smile and walks with determination and all the power she can muster. Stepping into the first set of doors, she shakes off the rain from her umbrella. She takes a deep breath and walks through another set of doors and into main office area of the station. She says hello to a few of the radio techs, all of whom are as friendly as the first time she came into the station. Wondering where Jackie is, Gigi grabs a cup of coffee, and heads down the hall to the recording room. There in the window, drinking coffee out of a mug that says, “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool aunt,” is the one and only Jackie Cox in all her glory. Decked out in the most elaborate 1960s ensemble of orange, brown and gold with large ornate sunglasses to match, Jackie is a glamorous vision. Since Gigi’s audition and first round interview, Gigi has been trying to figure out how old Jackie is. If you get close to her, she looks relatively young with her full smile, bright eyes and not a single wrinkle or imperfection anywhere to be found, however, with her consistently vintage wardrobe that ranges from looking like it belongs to Judy Garland to Judy Dench, Gigi supposes Jackie could be either 30 or 55.</p><p>“Baby Geege!” Jackie exclaims taking her sunglasses off to reveal some lovely gold eye makeup underneath. From the moment Gigi met Jackie, Jackie was her aunt, not just her boss or mentor. That is the energy she gives off and Gigi is thankful, both for the slightly embarrassing nickname and for this kind of familial energy since she is so far away from her mom. Gigi finds herself wrapped up in a tight hug from Jackie.</p><p>After some morning chit chat, reviewing the structure for the show and some reassuring words from Jackie that “Goode Art” will be a success, Gigi sits at the table across from Jackie and steadies herself. At 7:29 am, there is a countdown and then the illuminated “On Air” sign switches on. Gigi feels more ready than ever.  </p><p>____</p><p> </p><p>Blocks away, in another small apartment that is significantly more cluttered and colorful than Gigi’s, Crystal Methyd, the 24-year-old owner of Methyd Records (and very much not an elderly woman), has been up for hours before “Roll Call!” begins, which is very unlike her. At this point, Crystal can’t even deny it to herself that she is very excited to hear Gigi’s segment. Since 5:00 am, Crystal has been pacing around her apartment trying to keep herself busy before “Roll Call!” begins. “Crystal Elizabeth “Lesbian Rights!” Methyd, what do you think is going to come of this stupid crush you have on this person who you have never met?! And that fortune?!! UGH Heidi N. Closet is going to pay.” Crystal says out loud in exasperation, increasing in volume at the thought of Heidi and the stupid palm reading fortune. <em>“Me marrying fucking Gigi Goode? What kind of fortune is that?” </em></p><p>Crystal hates the feeling of the empty apartment, but she is at times thankful that her little brother sleeps over at his friends’ houses so much because of all the traveling he does for extracurriculars now, so he doesn’t have to see her talk to herself like this. Crystal makes herself tea, straightens out her room as if Gigi Goode is coming to the apartment in person and not through her clock radio, and does some laundry. So many loudly-patterned button downs. By 7:15 am, Crystal has worked herself up into such a frenzy cleaning the apartment, that as soon as she sits down on the bed just for a moment, she falls dead asleep.</p><p>Crystal regains consciousness at 7:55, her wild curls completely covering her face. She spits some out from her mouth and rubs her eyes. Crystal opted for contacts earlier in the morning and they’re feeling dry from falling asleep with them in. For the first time since she started listening to “Roll Call!” with her dad, she missed it. Jackie was signing off and Crystal, glaring at her clock, is pissed for many reasons. One, that her routine is messed up and she doesn’t feel like she can take on the day in the same way without Jackie’s positivity. Two, and really this one should be the first and most significant reason, that she missed Gigi’s segment. Crystal is legitimately angry about it. <em>“That voice…ugh Will I really have to wait until tomorrow” </em>Beyond the forces that are drawing Crystal to Gigi in this way, Crystal also loves art and even though she has very little time or desire to create it herself like she used to, she still wants to consume it in any way she can. Gigi’s segment is the perfect fix.</p><p>Crystal, supremely disappointed after the initial anger goes away, gets ready for work – a black sheath dress with an oversized flannel and her docs. Needing to hear some sort of chatter in the morning, Crystal selecta a true crime podcast to fill the time between her morning routine and getting to the store. <em>“Fucking serial killers. It’s really not the same as listening to a perfect voice like that.” </em>At this point Crystal just accepts the fact that Gigi Goode will be on her mind a lot.</p><p>Still feeling dumb about falling asleep and missing the show, Crystal begrudgingly heads off to the record store without an umbrella or the raincoat she was so proud of herself remembering on Friday. Crystal is wet, cold, annoyed, and her contacts are stinging a bit. A weird mood and wet curls. Crystal does not think this stormy Monday would be a good one.</p><p>Her phone then rings. Crystal wipes her hands on the sides of her flannel and takes her damp phone out from one of the flannel’s pockets. There is a caller-ID picture appearing on the phone of a selfie of her and Jackie with a sliver of Jaida’s face trying to photobomb. Jackie is calling.</p><p>Crystal sighs a bit in relief. Maybe she missed the show, but at least Jackie’s voice could perk up her mood a bit. “Hello? Jackie?” Crystal asks, voice cracking, as always.</p><p>“Crys! My darling dear, how are you?” Jackie’s sing-songy voice, comforting Crystal immediately, much like Widow’s does.</p><p>“I’m alright Jacks! I missed your show this morning because I’m an idiot and fell asleep. How did it go?” Crystal asked, genuinely wanting to know how it went but also wanting to see if the subject of Gigi would be brought up.</p><p>“You must have been exhausted then because you’re my biggest fan, hon! Our new gal did great today. You should come by and meet her sometime! Gigi’s only a little bit younger than your troupe of pals, she’d be a lovely new addition!” Jackie sang. Crystal blushes and it is as if Jackie can hear the blush through the phone.</p><p>“And she’s cuteeee!” Jackie muses.</p><p>“Jackieee, not you too,” Crystal whines.</p><p>“Oh Crys. Don’t worry I’m just having fun. What kind of auntie would I be if I didn’t try to help facilitate your destiny?” Jackie laughs gleefully.</p><p>“Jackie. Did Heidi say anything about the fortune to you?” Crystal asks Jackie very seriously.</p><p>“Ms. Jaida Essence Hall did. But it’s fiiiine, little one. I’m just playing around,” Jackie answers innocently. It should be noted that Jackie is not playing around. Jackie has been trying to set Crystal up with various girls that the fun aunt thinks are viable options. One of them even included Jan, which of course, because they had known each other for a long time beforehand, became a great friendship instead. The other main setup was Nicky, who did become Crystal’s significant other. Introducing Nicky to Crystal is one of Jackie’s biggest regrets because of how heartbreaking it turned out. However, Jackie is still determined to find Crystal someone, because she feels she deserves the best. Based on this fortune that the Essence of Beauty told her about, Jackie has now set her sights on Gigi as a possible person to fulfill Crystal’s fortune. Jackie, whip smart and even more determined to make Crystal happy since hearing about her fortune, has a plan.</p><p>Jackie cuts off Crystal’s stuttering and objections with phase one of her plan to get Crystal and Gigi together. “Anyway, hon. I called because the studio needs a new turntable. Similar to the one that Widow has at the bowling alley. Do you mind bringing one over to the station this afternoon whenever you get a chance? We’re thinking about expanding our music programming and I think we need a more sophisticated instrument,” Jackie explains. Not one bit of this story is true. The station already has a turntable, also courtesy of Methyd Records. But, as Crystal and Jackie spoke, the radio techs we’re unplugging the station’s vinyl player and speakers and figuring out where to hide it in order to get Crystal to go to the station and set up the new one so she and Gigi could meet without it feeling too orchestrated. Jackie is very proud of this plan.</p><p>“Oh…um...yeah yeah yeah! Do you want the setup I keep in the back? We never used it much because it’s kind of a pain to get hooked up and operate, but I can bring it over during my break. You can keep it since those techs of yours are so good,” Crystal offers, momentarily forgetting that there is a possibility Gigi would still be at the station in the afternoon. In the moment, Crystal is happy to help Jackie out with her vinyl-related needs at the station.</p><p>“That’s fine, my dear! Thank you soooo much! I will see you later. Signing off, this is Jackie Cox!” Jackie exits the phone call as she always does, forever a professional radio personality. Crystal feels slightly better after talking to Jackie and hits the ground running to open the store for the day.</p><p>In the late afternoon, it’s raining the hardest it has all day. Aiden comes by an hour before Crystal plans to leave with a red Radio Flyer wagon, an umbrella and a tarp to protect the equipment from water damage. Since the store isn’t terribly busy at this time, Aiden agrees to run the ship while Crystal is out and helps her gather the equipment and secure it with the tarp. Crystal hugs Aiden goodbye and ventures out with the wagon in tow and the flimsy umbrella that is clearly no match for the downpour. Crystal’s curls and outfit immediately get soaked once again, but she doesn’t mind as much, as long as the turntable, speakers, and all the accessories stay dry. Crystal arrives at the station, dripping with rainwater. Jackie lets her in, trying not to be too visibly overjoyed that Crystal agreed to this. Her plan was falling into place.</p><p>After toweling off to the best of her ability, Crystal gets to work setting up the turntable and integrating it into the larger system of equipment that the station has. It’s going well, until Crystal realizes her thick curly hair still has quite a bit of water in it. Crystal requests a new towel and tries to shake out all of the water from her hair. It’s still wet and unbeknownst to her, some water gets into places within the equipment that it definitely should not be.</p><p>As Crystal is nearing the end of her setup, Gigi is walking down the hallway from the kitchen where she keeps her food towards the main office area to get more coffee before getting back to planning out where to explore over the weekend. Gigi wants to be organized and make the best impression by getting a bunch of diverse content for her segment. Gigi hears the ruckus coming from one of the rooms on the path back to the office. This is the very room Crystal is in. Curious about what is going since no show is being recorded this hour, Gigi stops at the doorway. She is surprised to see a girl she has never seen before. Relatively tall but slightly shorter than Gigi, slim, olive skin, a bit of a grungy outfit, and the single best hairstyle Gigi has ever laid her eyes on. The girl’s flannel sleeves are rolled up, revealing long, strong forearms decorated with tattoos. Gigi can barely see her face, since it is pointed downward in laser focus at the task at hand. Gigi has no idea why, but she is captivated by this strange and unexpected being in her presence and even more so when the girl begins talking to herself about the steps to set up the equipment. Gigi finds it irresistibly adorable and remains in the doorway. At this point Gigi thinks it would be creepy to make a noise, considering how long she’s been standing there watching, so Gigi remains quiet until Jackie comes up next to her, with the biggest smile and raised eyebrows.</p><p>Just as the oblivious Crystal puts on a record and places the needle on the vinyl  before plugging it in to test if everything works, Jackie unable to handle the delay of her orchestrated meet cute, calls out, “Crystal! Have you met Gigi yet?” Crystal’s heart stops and she looks up to see Jackie and THE Gigi Goode just as she plugs in the equipment. Gigi is shocked by Jackie’s exclamation and is about to say something when the equipment, which now has a fair amount of water from Crystal’s clothes and curls inside of it, shorts out and shocks Crystal with a zap.</p><p>The turntable recovers from shorting out quickly and Peggy Lee’s <em>Fever </em>starts playing as Crystal, from the shock of Jackie and Gigi being in the room and the pain of being mildly electrocuted, falls to the ground. This has to be the most mortifying moment of Crystal’s life, but as much as she wants to run away, Crystal can’t even begin to move. Jackie gasps and immediately goes to find someone to help, leaving Gigi with the electrocuted girl. Gigi goes over to Crystal, who is lying on her back with her eyes closed, glorious curls now frizzing a bit from the electricity. Gigi stoops down and examines Crystal’s face in confusion and awe. She finds Crystal so beautiful with her bold makeup, long eyelashes, full lips, and of course, that mullet.</p><p>Gigi is in awe but also very confused.</p><p><em>“Jackie called her Crystal…how many Crystals are in this one neighborhood?” </em>Gigi thinks to herself, picturing the Crystal that Jan described to her that morning.</p><p>Gigi remains close to Crystal, waiting for Jackie to return. At least Crystal is breathing and just seems like she needs time to rest. After a few more minutes of staring at Crystal - admiring her and making sure she is still alive, Gigi feels weird for ogling this person she doesn’t know in such close proximity. Before Jackie returns, Crystal opens one eye and finally finds herself face to face with Gigi Goode. Internally, Crystal is screaming but externally Crystal tries to play it cool because Gigi looks like a model and has the most striking face and she’s already been electrocuted in front of her. Crystal decides Gigi’s soft hair and long nose that slopes up at the end are her new favorite things. “I’m Crystal Methyd. I like your voice,” Crystal blurts out, weakly. Both of their eyes widen.</p><p>Crystal’s widen because she cannot believe after being the biggest idiot in the world in front of Gigi, she goes on to further embarrass herself by being a fangirl. She is so close to the girl who has been occupying her thoughts as of late.</p><p>Gigi’s widen because she cannot believe <em>this </em>is Crystal Methyd.</p><p>“Aren’t you supposed to be an old lady?” Gigi asks Crystal in disbelief, immediately regretting it.</p><p>“What?!” Crystal asks, again mortified, wanting to lift her head to make full eye-contact with Gigi, but finding herself unable to. It is unclear if her body is still recovering from the electricity running through her body or because Crystal is hearing Gigi’s voice, low and soft, crisp and clear, in person.</p><p>“<em>The voice!!! And Why would Gigi think I am an old lady?” </em>Crystal hollers internally. <em>“Could it get any worse?”</em></p><p>“I am so sorry, just the way Jan described you…I…” Gigi can’t even finish this sentence. Gigi is so beyond attracted to the peculiar and electrocuted Crystal Methyd, who is very much not an elderly woman. The baseline of a new song coming from the turntable speakers pumps in Gigi’s ears and Peggy Lee’s sensual singing makes the whole interaction seem more intense.  </p><p>“Fucking Jan.” Crystal responds, feeling faint again. She closes her eyes tightly, hoping this moment and Gigi will just disappear. She can’t believe Gigi expected her to be elderly. Jan will be getting a talking to.</p><p>“<em>Peggy Lee is NOT helping the situation. And where is Jackie? What are the odds she left me here with Gigi completely on purpose?" </em>Crystal thinks. Crystal may be often oblivious or caught up in her own thoughts and unable to notice all of the things, but Crystal can smell a Jackie Cox setup from a mile away. Maybe not the electrocution part, but the whole turntable thing. Crystal should have known. </p><p>Crystal wants the floor below her to swallow her and Heidi’s words just play over and over in her head. <em>“The future holds that you, Crystal Elizabeth Methyd, are gonna fall in love with and marry the person you first meet when you are twenty fucking four years old. You’re 24 now, bitch!!!!”</em></p><p>And just outside the door is a triumphant Jackie, quietly high-fiving a line of nosy radio station techs. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>HAHA Jan. Gotta love Jan. And the scheming Auntie Jackie. They finally met???? What did you think? They're already useless and I love it ^_^ &lt;3 ty for reading! New update coming soon!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Let’s Get You Some Pizza!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Our poor Crys. They do say to know if a relationship is a good one, there needs to be a spark!” Aiden adds. Crystal’s friends are nearly on the floor, stomachs cramping with how hard they are laughing.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yay! Another chapter! With work, I had to stop and start again a lot with this chapter, but the next one will come a lot quicker so you don't have to wait so long!! I love writing scenes when a ton of characters are together so I hope you enjoy &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>And just outside the door is a triumphant Jackie, quietly high-fiving a line of nosy radio station techs. </em>
</p><p>Inside the room where Gigi and the recently-electrocuted but recovering Crystal are, Gigi is laughing at Crystal’s aggravated but still weakened response to how Jan described her to Gigi. The younger girl is flushed because of the heat of the room and her proximity to Crystal and finds herself wanting to sit by the older (but not elderly) girl’s side for longer. The A side of the Peggy Lee album that Crystal put on, has ended, fading into a soft static. Just as the thought of wanting to stay by Crystal crosses her mind, Jackie, who definitely has delayed entering the room with a first aid kid and some help, finally enters, feigning exaggerated concern. Jackie is genuinely concerned about Crystal as any surrogate aunt would be, but she is also caught up in the fact that phase one of her plan to set these two up actually worked. Not the way she planned, but it worked.</p><p>Jackie, now in the room and kneeling beside Crystal with first aid kit in-hand, realizes something very important that could jeopardize the entire plan. She looks up at the doorway, which Gigi’s has her back to, to find her radio techs peeking into the room wanting to see what happens next. Jackie shoos them away frantically with obvious “get out of here” gestures and freezes and blinks innocently when Gigi notices the movements. The techs disappear and Jackie encourages Gigi to get back to her segment writing while she enlists one of Crystal’s friends to take her home. Gigi reluctantly sits back on her heels away from Crystal, missing being so close to her and stands to her full height. She whispers her goodbye to Crystal, not knowing if the girl will register it at all. She then bids Jackie goodbye and begins to leave the room, but not before Jackie grabs a hold of her wrist to catch her. “You’ll want to be friends with this one, Baby Geege, but maybe when she isn’t such a hazard,” Jackie laughs, lovingly putting a washcloth on Crystal’s head. Gigi smiles and nods her head, cheeks still flushed.</p><p>“When you’re done with your planning, I want you to come by my office before you leave for the day! You did so well this morning, I know you can take on more responsibility around here which includes learning the tech ropes as well as covering your first big event,” Jackie says, smiling up at Gigi.</p><p>“I know you have a lot on your plate with the small segments of “Goode Art” already, but I think you’d be perfect for this. I mentioned this in your first interview, but in a month and a half is the big Halloween Festival, do you remember?” Jackie asks, now propping up Crystal with the rolled towel she used in her feeble attempt to dry her wild curls.</p><p>“Of course! That’s one of the reasons I was even more excited about the job! You said there may be an opportunity to cover some additional arts-related things in town during that time?” Gigi recalls.</p><p>“Yes! Exactly, my dear. It’s a huge annual celebration here. We love Halloween and we also love sharing everyone’s work so there’s also a big arts component. We’re talking concerts and a big outdoor arts fair where the mayor closes off the main streets and people display and sell their creations and promote their small businesses. Ms. Electricity here is one of the big organizers and she is sure to be overwhelmed with planning and setting it up. She does so much around town and for her little brother, she will need someone by her side. I’m assigning you to Crystal as her Halloween Festival assistant and along the way, as you help her plan and get everything in order, you can get her to show you what artists, artisans, musicians and events you can cover. You can do a full “Roll Call!” takeover during the last two weeks of October.” Jackie explains while texting Heidi if she is available to help Crystal back to Methyd Records.</p><p>Gigi gulps. That’s a lot to take in for a someone so new to this town and job. That is also a lot of time spent with Crystal. Knowing how Gigi reacted after just a short time with her, even though Crystal was not very conscious for most of it, Gigi cannot imagine how that will go. Her thoughts then travel to one of Jackie’s other statements about Crystal. <em>“She does so much around town and for her little brother, she will need someone by her side.”</em> Gigi isn’t sure how much more endearing and interesting Crystal could get. As nervous as Gigi is to be assigned to be Crystal’s right hand, she can’t deny how much she wants to get to know her. She’s been described as sweet and caring and basically the heart and center of the neighborhood. Gigi bets that if she talks to anyone else, they’d relay the same message about Crystal Methyd. <em>“She’s a good place to find community it seems,” </em>Gigi thinks to herself, trying to push away any ulterior motive of attraction she has for the girl. <em>“Focus on the art and doing a good job covering the event. Maybe even make a friend in Crystal, but Gigi Goode, do not any under any circumstances act on this attraction. You don’t want to do what you always do. You have to try to stay here.” </em>Gigi’s inner monologue has never before been so loud – without emotions, she could be part of the community and make connections without being tangled and knotted up inside. She wouldn’t have to run away from the emotions she feared because there wouldn’t be any.</p><p>Gigi, allowing her inner monologue to dictate her course of action, is now fully in the mindset to do an absolutely perfect job reporting on and setting up for the Halloween Festival while keeping her emotions so far deep inside, not a soul, not even her would be able to register them.</p><p>Jackie sees the determination on Gigi’s face when accepting the enormous assignment. Jackie claps her hands together with delight knowing the more time the two spend together, the more she could ensure the fulfillment of Crystal and Gigi’s bowling alley prophecy. Gigi takes her leave of Jackie and glances one last time at Crystal. As Gigi steps out of the threshold, a girl with giant, concerned eyes donning a baseball cap that reads, “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you!” over shiny black ringlets and the loudest pair of flip-flops Gigi has ever heard, runs into her and apologizes.</p><p>“Sorry, gal!” the girl says, as she rushes into the room Gigi just exited. Gigi watches from the hallway, wondering who the girl is. A few moments later, Gigi hears a faint, but squeaky voice say, “Heidi, what are you doing here?” The voice, belonging to a now fully-awake, perked-up Crystal is filled with joy at the sight of Heidi. Gigi feels a deep pang of jealousy that she cannot explain. Crystal is happy to see this person. Gigi, knowing the girl is probably Crystal’s close friend, she still wishes Crystal felt happy to see her as well. Instead of thinking about it too much, Gigi turns away and goes back to writing and segment-planning. <em>“No emotions this time, Ms. Goode,”</em> she warns herself.</p><p>___</p><p>“Crys, the fuck happened?!” Aiden exclaims, voice heavy with worry as Heidi enters Methyd Records with a very tired and disheveled-looking Crystal. Aiden has been running the shop for much longer than she thought she would be, leaving her worried about what happened to Crystal. Relieved that Crystal is okay to a certain extent, Aiden awkwardly helps Heidi walk Crystal, who is taller than both of them, to the couch in the back office of the store. They sit her down and Crystal explains what happened. Normally, if any of the members of this friend group came home hurt (emotionally and/or physically) for any reason, it was met with immediate action – like when the girls were all young and Jaida fell out of a swing during recess and Heidi attempted to steal Brita and Dahlia’s metal pliers in order to destroy the swing that hurt her best friend or when, during freshman year of high school, the very first girl Heidi ever dated broke her heart in a million pieces. The subsequent actions from Jaida, Aiden, and Crystal with the help of Widow, involved the playing of many a prank to ensure the girl never messed with Heidi again. This time though, Heidi and Aiden listen patiently to Crystal’s story of how she hurt herself and how close Gigi was to her and how Jackie totally planned this interaction. Instead of standing up in rage as was Crystal’s friends’ usual reaction to anything and anyone that messes with Crystal, they laugh hysterically (but lovingly) and hug the flannel-clad girl tightly.</p><p>“Crys. Only you would electrocute yourself in front of your future wife!” Heidi laughs, pulling away from the comforting cocoon of the group hug, handing Crystal a bottle of water.</p><p>“Our poor Crys. They do say to know if a relationship is a good one, there needs to be a <em>spark</em>!” Aiden adds. Crystal’s friends are nearly on the floor, stomachs cramping with how hard they are laughing.</p><p>“Ha ha. Very very funny. I got electrocuted, you guysssss. Worse than that, I embarrassed myself from here to the moon and back! And in front of Gigi fucking Goode” Crystal whines while Aiden strokes her tangled and frizzed-out curls. Crystal knows objectively this is very in-character for herself and is obviously very funny, however, she also knows she will never be able to live it down with her friends and she certainly does not think she can show her face in any place where the stunning Gigi Goode is.</p><p>“I’m going to call Jaida to come with pain meds. She’s going to look after you while Aiden and I finish up here. I’m great with customers and this spooky bitch is an inventory master,” Heidi states. Aiden rolls her eyes. </p><p>“Then, we’re going up to Jan’s for some pizza. We can relax and unwind and then we’re all coming over for a sleepover to talk about what’s going on Crys, outside of your budding relationship with your betrothed which I am e-<em>static </em>about,” Heidi says comically, but with an edge of seriousness and concern. Aiden agrees wholeheartedly. Crystal rolls her eyes at the stream of electricity puns coming from her friends, but her heart also warms at their persistence.</p><p>She can’t blame them for being concerned. Crystal knows that Heidi has been hyper-aware of her emotional state since they delivered records yesterday afternoon and she so wants to be able to tell the girls everything, but it’s hard when she’s always been the strong one – for her family and in her relationships and friendships. It’s something Crystal has always felt she had to be and this feeling skyrocketed when he parents passed. In addition to not wanting to seem weak or allow herself the space to be taken care of, Crystal doesn’t know if she has the ability to verbally express what is going on. It’s difficult to explain the waves of grief and anxiety that wash over her with no discernable pattern or reason. It’s very difficult to put into words how her memories of her 21<sup>st</sup> year, with her parents more vivid and real than ever and why her undeniable attraction to Gigi is bringing up so many thoughts about her past relationships. And finally, Crystal cannot even fathom expressing what she feels most guilty about. <em>“Any desire to move away, to become whatever you wanted to be in art school, Crystal Methyd, is completely and utterly selfish, and you know it. You cannot leave the people and places that need you.” </em>Those words have played on a loop for the last three years</p><p>Crystal, looking at her friends’ expectant faces, nods her head, “yeah, yeah, yeah, a sleepover sounds fun.” Crystal loves that even in their twenties, sleepovers remain a source of joy, where they can just be kids – although the conversations probably won’t all be light and childish. Heidi jumps up relieved that Crystal agreed to the sleepover and heads for the door of the office to call Jaida, knowing how loud Jaida’s reaction will be to Crystal getting hurt and meeting Gigi in person. As Heidi leaves, Crystal sees Aiden’s eyes soften as they follow Heidi. Crystal has never seen Aiden, whose eyes were so sharp and her makeup so stunningly severe, look so soft and cute. Crystal smiles and nudges Aiden in the side, causing her to blush furiously.</p><p>“I’ve only ever seen that bright rosy color on your eyelids, Ms. Aiden Zhane. What gives, my gothic bride?” Crystal whispers to make sure Heidi can’t hear.</p><p>“Don’t try to change the subject, Methyd. But, yeah, you caught me. I’ve always thought Heidi is adorable but she was always taken in high school and during college. I guess since she defended me when everyone was picking on me in high school, I’ve thought about her more and more. She’s single now and I don’t know…” Aiden admits under her breath, trailing off at the end of her sentence.</p><p>“You need to tell me everything, I can’t believe I didn’t notice before! My two best friends, how cayoooot!” Crystal exclaims in a strained whisper, only to be hushed by Aiden. Crystal is probably one of the worst whisperers ever.</p><p>“I’m ignorning you now. Wait here for Jaida, take your medicine and relax. Then, get ready to stuff your face with pizza,” Aiden says coolly, completely changing the subject. Crystal chuckles at the blush that remains on Aiden’s face.</p><p>“Aiden, wait!” Crystal calls after her. Aiden turns around.</p><p>“Thank you for helping me out today. And always. I don’t know what I’d do without all of you.” Crystal admits, feeling very tired and very grateful.</p><p>“Crys,” Aiden says, in a low voice as she walks towards Crystal. “There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you. Not that friendship is about owing anything, but you have done everything for us. This is the least we can do and we love you. Now, rest,” Aiden commands. Aiden is quiet most of the time and the times that she isn’t, usually involves her fiercely defending her friends – there is not much that is scarier than the wrath of Aiden Zhane. However, Aiden can be incredibly nurturing and sensitive as well. Crystal’s eyes well up with tears as Aiden kisses her forehead and turns to finish up at the store, the stomp of her platform combat boots indicating she is ready to work.</p><p>When Aiden leaves, Crystal reclines on the couch, blinking away the tears and taking a deep breath. She is not used to having any kind of break. Through the glass office doors, Crystal can see Heidi and Aiden bickering playfully as they finish various tasks. Just as she thinks Heidi and Aiden are about to openly flirt with one another, the sound of the office door rings in Crystal’s ears and a tall figure with crossed arms stands in Crystal’s sight lines. Crystal sits up, smiling sheepishly.</p><p>“Jaida! You came! How…how’s it going?” Crystal stammers, not able to read the look on Jaida’s face. Jaida is dressed in grey jeans that hug her long legs perfectly, crisp white and black Adidas, and a t-shirt tucked in her jeans that she bought at the concert Jan jacked her family’s car to take Jaida to. Her makeup is always done to perfection, with little pieces of false eyelashes glued to her bottom lash line, making Jaida look like a silent movie actress, like a walking work of art. She stares at Crystal with a disapproving look as she underhand throws the pain relief medicine bottle to Crystal. A moment later, Jaida’s face breaks into a huge grin.</p><p>“BITCH! You met Gigi!!!! Are you in love yet?!” Jaida yells, putting her arms above her head in celebration.</p><p>“Did you not hear how my stupid mullet got me electrocuted? And in front of her?” Crystal retorted, covering her face with her hands.</p><p>“First, do not speak ill of your mullet, chile. It’s hot as hell and you know it. With a first impression like that, I think you may have sealed your destiny. Second, are you okay?”</p><p>“Ugh I’m fine, just confused and embarrassed. What else is new?” Crystal grumbles, looking down at her docs.</p><p>“My beautiful weirdo, let momma Jaida take care of you. Heidi is spastic and Aiden is Aiden. I’m your best chance to turn this embarrassment into couple goals,” Jaida reassures Crystal.</p><p>“I think you already took care of it. Jackie told me you told her about Gigi and my fortune,” Crystal accuses, tilting her head to the side.</p><p>“Look, I saw Widow and Jackie yesterday evening at the pizza shop and we got to gossiping. You are the most interesting gossip in town and I just wanna see you happy. We all do,” Jaida says.</p><p>“I appreciate that, you know I do. It’s just a lot but I promised Heidi I’d try to unpack it for you all tonight.” Jaida nods, finding Crystal’s answer satisfactory.</p><p>“You sure do hang out a lot at the pizza shop. Is there a certain someone you are there to see?” Crystal goes on to quip, popping a couple of orange Ibuprofen pills into her mouth and taking a swig of water to wash them down. Crystal is feeling confident today in grilling her friends about their love prospects considering how much her personal life has been up for discussion lately.</p><p>“Crys. It’s just Jan. I keep telling you. There’s nothing to report. She’s our friend,” Jaida defends, trying with all her might not to blush.</p><p>Before Crystal can press Jaida any further about Jan, Heidi announces that the last customers have left, that Methyd Records is closing a bit early and that it is pizza time.</p><p>The final store cleanup goes quickly since all four of them are there. Once things feel like they are in the proper place, Heidi leads the group to out of Methyd Records, up the small set of stairs and through the gate. It finally had stopped raining and Crystal breathes in, happy to know she may not get rained on for the third time that day. The girls enter one by one into the narrow door right next to Methyd Records, then all four of them climb one flight of narrow steps and pile into the small pizza shop. The smell of hot, homemade Italian food hits them immediately as does Jan’s voice. Jan runs up to the group and hugs all of them, giving extra care to embracing Jaida. The energy between Jan and Jaida is palpable.</p><p>“Sit down, guys! I’ll get you some drinks and I can fire up your pizzas. Crys, you don’t look so good, hon,” Jan observes, hands on her hips waiting for an explanation of why Crystal looks particularly run down today. Jan is sporting another version of the Mantione’s Pizza shirt and a black apron that Jan took the liberty of decorating with purple fabric paint so everyone who comes to the shop knows she’s “Just Jan!” Her long blonde hair is up in a tight bun, with some fine stray hairs coming down and framing her face.</p><p>“<em>Watt</em> are you talking about?” Crystal jokes, putting emphasis on the word, “watt.” Crickets. “Oh so I’m not allowed to make an electrocution joke too?” Crystal looks around, jokingly offended, hoping any one of her friends would find it funny.</p><p>“You are. But only if they’re good,” Aiden says in response, her arms crossed over her chest. Heidi laughs out loud at Aiden’s comment, putting her hand on Aiden’s knee while she is getting her laughter out. Aiden visibly blushes for the second time that day.</p><p>“Ugh I miss everything working up here, you guysss,” Jan whines, upset she doesn’t always get all of the gossip or jokes because of her busy work schedule. The Mantiones are all-hands-on-deck people.</p><p>“We’ll tell you all about it if you come over tonight for a sleepover at Crystal’s!” Jaida announces, sounding more nervous at the end of her sentence as she looks into Jan’s bright blue eyes. Jan lights up.</p><p>“I’m totally in! But you have to tell me about whatever happened with the electrocution!” Jan says, wanting to be caught up on everything going on. Just then, Jan hears the door to the shop open and out of the corner of her eye, sees the person (besides Jaida) she has been waiting for. “…but not before serving my brand new friend!” Jan says loudly over the musical stylings of Frank Sinatra playing from the speakers in the back of the shop, directing the word “friend” like a gameshow host announcing the prize for winning at the person who just walked into Mantione’s Pizza. Crystal looks towards the door from her vantage point at their usual table and sees Gigi Goode, standing like a pristine Barbie doll just out of the box. Gigi just stands there, not knowing what to do with everyone staring at her after Jan’s announcement of her presence.</p><p>“Uh…hi…Jan!” Gigi begins, directing it mostly at Jan at first but then realizing Crystal is among the people looking at her. Before Gigi intends to boldly go over to Crystal and ask how she is doing despite being very nervous because Crystal is actually fully alive now, a few other customers who are in the shop go over to Gigi to say hello, welcoming her to town and praising her on her first segment. <em>“Such a community feeling this place has,” </em>Gigi observes.</p><p>“You did fantastic today!” One woman with her child in-hand says to her.</p><p>“I’ve always thought this place needs a little more style. You’re segment is cool,”  an angsty-looking teenager that could’ve been Aiden’s child says, looking down at their shoes. “Are you gonna talk about the Halloween Festival?” they ask her.</p><p>“Oh yeah! That is my first assignment actually, to shadow the festival setup and help out, then I’ll be covering it all on ‘Roll Call!’ for you.” Gigi says, proud of her assignment, hoping Crystal hears what she is saying. The teenager nods their head with a slight smile.</p><p>“Darling, you are in for a treat! Have you met Crystal Methyd over there yet? Her and her friends are big Halloween Festival people,” the mother with the child asks. Crystal and Gigi blush simultaneously.</p><p>“Uh…yeah. To my <em>shock </em>and surprise, I met her briefly today,” Gigi replies. Crystal’s entire friend group is roaring with laughter that Gigi is in on the joke too and Crystal is dumbstruck.</p><p><em>“Fuck. She’s funny too? Like genuinely funny?” </em>Crystal thinks, fiddling with the salt and pepper packets that are on the table.</p><p>“Well, she’s a lovely gal. I’m sure she will help you out with your radio coverage!” The woman chirps.</p><p>“Well actually,” Gigi begins, making direct eye contact at Crystal as she walks slowly to their table. “Jackie assigned me to be Crystal’s Halloween Festival assistant so I can really learn about it inside and out.” Gigi is now right in front of the group. Heidi can’t stop staring at Gigi and Aiden nudges her side. Jaida and Jan look at each other knowingly and then look over to Crystal who looks as if she had just been electrocuted again. “I mean…if that’s okay with you. Jackie wants me to do a lot of coverage of the festival and since it’s so art-filled, she wants me to work with the best, I guess.”</p><p>No response from Crystal. Crystal truly feels like she’s been shocked again. But by lightning this time. She is now getting a full and very clear picture of Gigi Goode and it’s overwhelming. Crystal has never felt the urge to kiss someone in public, but Gigi is an entirely different story. <em>“Must be a witch,” </em>Crystal concludes, not being able to take her eyes off of Gigi’s perfectly symmetrical and made-up face.</p><p>Jan leans over and flicks Crystal’s head which snaps her back to reality. “Oh! Sorry. Um…uh…sure! Anything for the radio show,” Crystal squeaks out. There’s silence again and Aiden, Heidi, Jaida, and Jan are looking between them, waiting for someone to respond.</p><p>“Okay!” Jaida claps, breaking the silence. “Gigi, nice to meet you, great segment today! I’m Jaida Essence Hall, this is Heidi N. Closet. Next to her is our gothic bride Aiden Zhane and it looks like you know Jan and Short Circuit 2 (referring to Crystal) already. We all do different things to plan for the Halloween Festival, but Electro Girl is the best possible person you can hang with to get all the details. Since she’s acting a fool right now, here’s her number so you can get to it,” Jaida says bluntly, handing Crystal’s phone number that she scribbled on a napkin to Gigi. Gigi nods and takes the napkin. Crystal cannot comprehend that Gigi has her phone number.</p><p>“Gigi Goooode! Would you like to hang out with us tonight?” Heidi sings out to Gigi’s surprise, determined much like Jackie to get Crystal and Gigi to spend as much time together as possible. The others nod in agreement, Crystal hyperventilates.</p><p>“Oh! That’s so nice, but I have to finish planning some things and I have to get up really early to record, but thank you!” Gigi politely declines, her excuse being a real one, but also, she’s not sure if she’s ready to spend time with the girl she really just wants to kiss aggressively right now.</p><p>“Gigi is probably exhausted, you guys. I saw her out today at like 6 am this morning. Let her rest and we’ll catch her this weekend?” Jan’s statement, turning into a question directed at Gigi. Gigi nods her head. “Great! Gigi, let’s get you some pizza,” Jan says and guides Gigi over to a table that isn’t full of strange and overwhelming energies right now. Jan sits Gigi down, announces her break to her family members working in the kitchen and straps in for an evening getting to know Gigi and how her first session went. Jan knows Gigi met Crystal already today and is especially interested in how that went, not knowing the electrocution the other girls were talking about is actually what set off their meeting. Gigi is grateful for Jan’s company and the welcoming nature of the others in the neighborhood. Gigi feels somewhat settled here, to her surprise.</p><p>Jaida and Heidi decide it’s time to get Crystal home because of the wild day she has had. They bid their goodbye’s to Jan and Gigi, Crystal barely being able to get out a comprehendible salutation. Gigi chuckles and blushes a bit. Gigi gestures to her phone to the curly-haired girl that she will text her soon. Crystal nods and for the first time, does something that Gigi is entirely ill-prepared for. Crystal smiles, a huge pearly smile, her makeup making her smile look even wider and brighter. Gigi feels her heartbeat skip, watching the Crystal leave with her friends.</p><p>Gigi shrinks in her chair after the group leaves, head tucked into her chest, eyes closed tightly. Gigi shakily breathes out as quietly as she can. She is about to spend an inordinate amount of time with Crystal. She is fully in trouble. <em>“Man am I in trouble…that girl is going to be the death of me, isn’t she?” </em>Gigi says to herself. Or at least she originally thinks she does. Gigi actually says this out loud, albeit very quietly. Gigi hopes and prays that Jan either did not hear anything or will be kind and ignore it.</p><p>Nothing gets past Jan though and she will definitely not ignore it. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>OKAY SO FIRST - so many crushes among these cuties omg!! It's hard to figure out who I love writing for most besides Crystal! I love them all so much! Who is your favorite character and who is your favorite RPDR Season 12 queen in real life? I'm queer, biracial and have always been labeled a kooky one so I connected to Crystal immediately but I also LOVE Jaida and Widow (and all of them tbh). Can't wait to post the next one!!! Any predictions about where Gigi and Crystal will go for their first meetup to plan for the Halloween Festival?!<br/>&lt;3 &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. You're One of Us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“JAIDA ESSENCE HALL!!!!! A heart?! Why in the world would I include a heart and I don’t talk anything like this. ‘tomorrow can’t come soon enough’ – she’s going to think I’m a world-class weirdo!” Crystal reprimands the girl standing in front of her.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My loves!! I am so sorry for the delay!! Work and life can get in the way but writing this story brings immense joy to my life!! This chapter again makes me incredibly happy and we are seeing more and more about these characters each time!! I hope you enjoy &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Man am I in trouble…that girl is going to be the death of me, isn’t she?” Gigi thinks. Or at least she originally thinks. Gigi actually says this out loud, albeit very quietly. Gigi hopes and prays that Jan either did not hear anything or will be kind and ignore it. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nothing gets past Jan though. </em>
</p><p>“Gigi Goode. Who is going to be the death of you may I ask?” Jan leans in excitedly, her hands gripping the side of the table. In just a few moments of staring between Crystal and Gigi while they couldn’t seem to speak a normal word to each other, Jan basically figured everything out.</p><p>“Jan. Do I have to say it? Do I have to admit out loud that…” Gigi trails off and her stomach flips as the words inch closer to leaving her mouth.</p><p>“That you like Crystal Methyd,” Jan states, finishing Gigi’s thought without any hesitation. Gigi wishes she could be like Jan, no hesitation, no need to hold back.</p><p>“What!? No. Not…I do not like…” Gigi again can’t finish her lie of a sentence. Crystal’s name feels weighty, like if she were to say her name, her whole life will irreversibly and dramatically change that instant.</p><p>“Crystal Methyd,” Jan finishes Gigi’s sentence once again, tilting her head to the side and looking at Gigi expectantly.</p><p>“Ugh. Y…I don’t know,” Gigi responds. She wants to fold in on herself. Jan looks so happy because Gigi’s reaction basically re-confirms her feelings. Gigi, however feels like she’s drowning in her thoughts. Jan’s happiness then morphs into level of visible concern that blows Gigi away. Not a single person that she hung around with in LA ever looked at her like that. Not that people weren’t nice, but there was a lack of empathy and genuine concern for others because everyone that she knew was so into making careers for themselves. Human connection seemed to come second in the circles Gigi ran with. When Gigi moved to this neighborhood, not a single one of those people called or seemed to wonder where she went. Gigi is not one to talk about any of this, but there is something about Jan’s bright, welcoming face and the warm glow of the pizza shop’s atmosphere that feels safe to Gigi.</p><p>“I can’t do anything about it, Jan. I came here for a new start and I can’t let emotions get in the way. I tend to get scared and I let it ruin everything. I get so scared and in my head about being perfect that when I wasn’t, I literally moved away to start a new life because my old one was too much to face. I’m about to spend a ton of time with her, Jan. This person that everyone describes as amazing,” Gigi cannot believe that after putting so much effort into bolstering herself against feeling any feelings just hours earlier that day, she is here, in a pizza shop, spilling her guts to Jan.</p><p>“You all love her. If I fuck up in any way, if I act on anything I’m feeling and then find myself getting scared again, I’ll mess everything up. I’ll hurt her and you all and I won’t be able to be here anymore. I just have to put my head down and do my work. To be perfect in that because I don’t think I can be perfect at...” The thought of having to move away again terrifies Gigi and she had not previously realized how interconnected her fears have become with her newfound attraction to Crystal. Gigi, having said that all in one breath, is trying to catch hers.</p><p>“Gigi, what’s all this about perfection and messing up? Crystal is amazing for sure. It can be intimidating – not her as a person because she’s such a soft little weirdo, but because she is just the center of so many things here. She is beloved. I feel similarly about acting on my feelings, so I understand to an extent,” Jan nods her head in solidarity.</p><p>“You do?” Gigi asks, relieved, breathing normally again.</p><p>“Yeah…Jaida. I’ve been in love with her forever and am absolutely terrified about acting on that feeling and what would happen if I were to mess it up. I also don’t even know if she’s into girls, she’s very private about her love life even though she’s loud about everything else,” Jan chuckles, thinking about Jaida. Gigi feels comforted by this and looks warmly at Jan as she continues.</p><p>“But, I also know, whatever I choose, people here have my back here. And Gigi, this is your home now too,” Jan continues. “All those people just came up to you to cheer you on. You’re one of us now. Don’t let this thing, a relationship of any kind with Crystal which could be absolutely amazing, keep you from feeling at home here. This place is a community and you’re already part of it. You’re already doing amazing work and you’re going to kill the Halloween Festival coverage. You don’t have to be perfect here. I don’t know how it is where you’re from originally, but here, people accept you no matter what.” Jan reassures Gigi, taking Gigi’s large bony hand into her smaller, intricately manicured one.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I barely know you and all of this is a lot,” Gigi apologizes, releasing her hand from Jan’s to cover her reddening ears with her long fingers.</p><p>“Gigi, I’m really glad you told me. You feeling comfortable enough to tell me these things means you’re definitely part of the community. This place,” Jan gestures all around her family’s pizza shop, “has been the site of many a revelation, reveal, fight, breakup and breakdown. I’ve seen it all and I’ve lived through many of my own. You’re doing awesome and you don’t have to be perfect. Just yourself,” Jan beams at her newest friend, squeezing Gigi’s hands.</p><p>“Act on what you feel with Crystal or not, but know that whatever happens, you, Gigi Goode are now one of us. You won’t be able to run that easily, now that I am <em>obsessed </em>with you,” Jan laughs loudly, causing other tables to glance over at theirs. Gigi nods and takes a bite of the fresh pizza that is sitting on the table now. Gigi has never tasted something so delicious and has never felt so supported.</p><p>___</p><p>Jaida, Aiden, Heidi, and Crystal, after checking in the window of Methyd Records that everything is in order, head over to Crystal’s apartment. The walk is short and the air is cool after an entire day of heavy rain. Jaida receives a text from Jan while Crystal is buzzing into the building that she’ll be over in about an hour and Jaida blushes, only to be seen by Aiden.</p><p>After a shaky stair climb because of her long day, Crystal’s heart is beating loudly as she unlocks her apartment and her friends enter and fill the space with the sounds of chatter, footsteps on creaky floors and rummaging through Crystal’s fridge and cupboards to find snacks. Crystal steps back and looks at the scene of busybodies filling the usually empty space of her kitchen. Although Crystal’s childhood apartment is filled with knick-knacks and bright colored wallpaper and feels instantly like home to all who enter, having her friends around brings life to Crystal’s apartment that it desperately needs.</p><p>They all settle into the kitchen and find their spots, their positions that they always took when they wanted to talk for real. The positions change a bit depending on what home they’re at, but for each of the girls’ homes, there is a spot. If they wanted to just gossip and talk about nothing, they’d just play video games or settle in on the living room couches and put on Adventure Time. However, once Heidi signals the beginning of talking about Crystal, everyone sits in their unofficial places, ready to begin. Aiden is sitting on the edge of the kitchen island with her fishnet-clad legs draping over the side, holding an open bag of pretzels. Crystal is at the wooden dining room table that is placed just outside of the kitchen area but before the living room begins.</p><p>Heidi walks over to her spot right next to Crystal at the table and places a plate of immaculately-cut mango sprinkled with a healthy dose of chili powder and finished with lime juice in front of the curly-haired shop owner. Crystal simultaneously feels a pang of sadness looking at the mango and incredible gratitude and love for Heidi.</p><p>This is something Crystal’s mom always made. Back in the day, Crystal’s mom taught them all how to make and enjoy a variety of Mexican specialties, including the perfect Mango con chili y limon, that she grew up with. Crystal’s mom had a particularly soft-spot for Heidi since she was over so much in their younger days while her parents worked some late shifts at work. Even if Crystal wasn’t around because of art lessons or working at the store with her father, you could still often find Heidi at the Methyd family’s abode, cooking alongside Crystal’s mother and her little brother, learning Spanish, listening to music, and eating delicious treats. This is why Heidi’s mango is of the highest caliber.</p><p>As Heidi sits down next to Crystal, she rubs her best friend’s shoulder and grabs her hand as she settles into her spot at the table. Crystal looks at her and nods, a tear threatening to escape her eye. Heidi nods back with a facial expression that reads, “it’s nothing.” Watching this interaction between Heidi and Crystal, Aiden’s whole body feels as if it is glowing with pride and admiration for Heidi. <em>“She’s perfect,” </em>Aiden thinks.</p><p>To the left of the island where the smitten Aiden is seated, there is a small desk with, covered in papers, post-its, pictures and reminders that Crystal has not touched since her parents passed, built into the wall of Crystal’s kitchen. It has a space below it for a chair. Jaida, as always, takes the chair and hooks her long legs over the sides, sitting backwards in it so her head can rest on the top rung of the chair that was intricately-painted with the Mexican dahlias by Crystal’s mom. There is silence for the first time since they all piled into Crystal’s apartment.</p><p>Crystal is sitting next to Heidi, certain that she will nervous sweat all her makeup off in anticipation. Instead of letting one of her friends speak first, Crystal breaks the silence. “Okay. Say what you’re all going to say first, just to get it out of the way,” Crystal says reluctantly as she covers her eyes to prepare herself.</p><p>“Okay I’ll go first,” Jaida proclaims, putting her hand up in the air as if she is still in school. “Gigi is really fucking hot and she is clearly into you. You should definitely spend as much time as you possibly can with her, planning for the Halloween Festival because that fortune is coming true if it kills me,” Jaida says, looking directly at the impossibly-red Crystal, not mincing any words. It’s simply not Jaida’s style to keep things inside, except for one thing – one very blonde, energetic, sparkly purple, pizza-serving thing.</p><p>Crystal is holding onto Heidi’s hand still, but uses her free hand to smack herself on the forehead. “Jaida…” Crystal whines.</p><p>“Don’t even try to deny it. It’s clear that you like her. What would be so bad about getting to know her and possibly starting a relationship with her?” Jaida asks, pushing Crystal to talk a little bit more. With Crystal, it isn’t always easy to get her to show some vulnerability. Sometimes it is like pulling teeth.</p><p>“I…” Crystal begins only for Aiden to interject. “Is it because of you know who?” Aiden asks, bluntly.</p><p>Heidi and Jaida’s eyes widen at the question and everyone looks at Crystal. “It’s not at all about <em>Nicky, </em>you guys. You can say her name. That was a long time ago,” Crystal answers softly, her voice not without hurt despite saying it wasn’t about Nicky.</p><p>“If it’s not about Nicky, then what is it?” Heidi carefully prods, still holding Crystal’s hand. “If I may ask,” she adds.</p><p>“It’s not so much about Nicky herself as it is about getting attached to another girl who may not be into girls or secure with being with girls and who may not want to deal with all of this…” Crystal lists quickly, gesturing to herself, having thought about all the reasons she hasn’t tried to date anyone in so long.</p><p>“Crys, what do you mean by ‘all of this?’” Jaida asks, scooting the chair a bit closer to the dining table.</p><p>“I kind of told Heidi the other day, but there’s been something lately where I am feeling really overwhelmed with everything, even little things that are easy to take care of. Outside of the <em>Gigi thing, </em>I have to sort out all the financial stuff because college is coming up soon for my brother. I think that’s where it started. There’s this feeling that with him leaving for college, I’ll be all alone in this house filled with all these reminders of my parents forever.” It’s not easy for Crystal to say any of this and she’s not sure if she’s capturing her feelings well at all, but it does feel like some weight is lifting off of her shoulders. Heidi squeezes her hand, reminding her that they’re all right here.</p><p>“You know when you lose someone and the sadness kind of fades away. Like a little bit, maybe a year, a couple of years in you feel like you can at least breathe again and think about them without being swallowed whole by everything. Well, since I’ve been thinking about being here alone more and more, running the goddamn record store for the rest of my goddamn life, the accident feels a lot more vivid and recent. It feels like I’m losing them all over again. It’s so fucked, I know. I just can’t help it,” Crystal cries out, voice breaking. She takes a hooked index finger and rubs her eye, trying to prevent any tears from escaping.</p><p>“Crys…” Heidi manages to say, heart breaking for her best friend.</p><p>“I know. I know you all are here with me always and I love you guys and I love it here. I love the store. I love everything about being here, I just can’t shake feeling stuck and left behind, I guess? I’m sorry, it’s so selfish.” Crystal apologizes, feeling incredibly guilty for even thinking this.</p><p>“Crys. Don’t apologize for what you’re feeling!” Jaida exclaims before Heidi and Aiden can say anything. “You literally put everything on hold to take care of your family. You broke your lease in New York City. You orchestrated your parents’ memorial, you tried to hold onto your relationship despite everything going on, and you became a parent and a store owner at 21. I know for a fact between delivering records, dropping everything to help people around the neighborhood, planning the Halloween Festival and other events around here, literally running Methyd Records by yourself, taking care of your house, your brother, and all of us too, that you haven’t you haven’t had a break or a choice to do anything else. You have every right to feel the way you do, it’s not selfish!” Jaida is now standing, not able to contain how she feels. Normally, Crystal wouldn’t be taken aback by a fast-paced, heartfelt speech like that coming from Jaida, but hearing all of <em>that </em>from Jaida is something Crystal can’t comprehend.</p><p>“Jaida…” Crystal begins, getting up to wrap one of her other best friends in the biggest hug. Jaida is truly one of the best people on the planet.</p><p>“You are not selfish, Crys. You’re the best. Full stop,” Jaida says, not breaking eye contact with Crystal, as she holds her by the shoulders after they break from their hug. “I’m happy you told us,” she adds. Crystal nods and hugs Jaida again. “We’re gonna figure this all out together, yeah?” Jaida reassures Crystal, while cupping the back of her head, like Crystal is something so precious and breakable.</p><p> Just then, there is a knock at the door, jolting all four teary-eyed twenty-somethings out of the moment.</p><p>“Guys! It’s Jaaaaan!” Jan’s voice rang out loudly even behind a door. Jaida let’s go of Crystal and collects herself for a moment, and opens the door. Jan’s face breaks into the biggest smile Jaida has ever seen and Jan proceeds to put down the giant container of Italian cookies she is holding to ambush Jaida with a hug around her neck, causing Jaida to stumble backward.</p><p>“Sorry, Jaida. I didn’t mean to bowl you over,” Jan laughs, eyes crinkling, causing Jaida’s heartbeat to speed up.</p><p>“No worries, Jan,” Jaida replies, feeling herself being surrounded with Jan’s lavender-lemon perfume and feeling bowled over both by Jan physically and figuratively, because no amount of flour and sauce could ever take away from Jan’s beauty in Jaida’s eyes. In fact, Jaida thinks she looks more beautiful than ever with her wire glasses shielding her tired eyes and more strands of blonde hair falling from her bun. Jan and Jaida walk into the kitchen area where all the other girls are still trying to recover from their emotional conversation. There’s more to talk about, but a break is much needed. Crystal, Heidi, and Aiden all perk up slightly when they spot Jan. Jan goes around and hugs everyone, noticing that all her friends’ eyes are somewhat red and puffy, including Jaida’s.</p><p>“Y’all, what did I miss?” Jan asks, looking between all four of them. Then, she notices that her friends are in their deep talk spots. Though always invited, Jan is not always around for sleepovers, but she too, has a deep talk spot, which is right next to Crystal on her non-Heidi side. Jaida gently and pointedly moves her head in Crystal’s direction in order to catch Jan up without rehashing everything that just went on. “Ohhh! I miss everything don’t I?!” Jan says as she sits next to Crystal and holds out her arms with grabby hands, inviting Crystal into a warm Jan hug. Crystal accepts the hug immediately and then rests her head on Jan’s shoulder, a position the two were very familiar with due to the many times they got detention for bending some very unfun, strict school rules together and needed a comfortable way to sleep through said detentions.</p><p>Heidi suggests she, Aiden, and Crystal whip up a cake so Jaida can catch Jan up while the two of them set up for the sleepover in the living room. Jaida turns on the living room TV and of course reruns of Adventure Time is what she and Jan settle on. They could all be 1000 year-old dusty skeletons and Adventure Time would still be the go-to. Crystal of course, colorful and strange in childhood as she is in adulthood, introduced them all to it.</p><p>The comforting sounds of the TV and Jan and Jaida quietly talking while setting up a sea of blankets and pillows on the living room floor combined with the Aiden and Heidi fighting over the difference between baking powder and baking soda makes Crystal feel extra lucky that after her huge admission to feeling stuck, for feeling all the weight of her responsibilities, for feeling deeply lonely and like the trauma and grief of losing her parents feeling so fresh, and for being so damn obvious about her interest in Gigi, that her friends are around, acting the same as always. Lovable idiots, every single one of them.</p><p>After admiring her little family made up of her friends, Crystal returns to the cake making, ending Heidi and Aiden’s increasingly flirtatious disagreement about chemical leaveners by snatching both packages out of their hands, measuring out the proper dose of both, and adding them to the blue mixing bowl designated for dry ingredients. Crystal is ready to take full control of the cake making after watching Aiden try to fish out multiple egg shells from the wet ingredients bowl, when she receives an unexpected text. All of her close friends who would be texting her at this time of night are with her, so the options of who it could be are limited. Crystal looks down at her phone. A message from an unknown number.  </p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Hey! This is Gigi Goode! I hope you’re feeling better and recovering from your shock! I wanted to text you and ask if you had time this week to meet about the Halloween Festival!</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Crystal’s breath hitches. Gigi Goode is texting her. Crystal gave Gigi her number, but it is still unbelievable. The thought about spending a ton of time with Gigi being her assistant for the Halloween Festival washes over Crystal again and she freezes up, unable to text back.</p><p>“Crys, what’s up?” Jan says as she enters the kitchen to see if there is any cake batter she could steal.</p><p>“Gigi…texted me,” Crystal says to a silent room. About 15 seconds later, the roar of excited reactions begin. Over all of them Crystal can hear Jan the clearest.</p><p>“You gave her your number, remember? You need an assistant, Crys. Whether you text her back or not, Jackie assigned Gigi to you so she’s going to be around. So…text her back and get to falling in love…I mean planning!” Jan corrects herself quickly. Crystal nods, glaring down at her phone. She travels over to the table, staring at Gigi’s text. Five minutes go by and Crystal still can’t think of anything good to say.</p><p>Fed up by her hesitation, Jaida swipes Crystal’s phone out of her hand and begins typing. Crystal objects and tries to snatch the phone back, but is powerless against Jaida. Crystal huffs and looks at her phone to see what damage she has done.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Hey back! Sure thing! I’m free any evening this week, especially tomorrow. Let’s meet at the candle pin bowling alley since it’s close to W-RPDR and we can go through the storage room there to see what we’ve got for the festival. Can’t wait! Tomorrow can’t come soon enough &lt;3 </strong>
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</p><p>“JAIDA ESSENCE HALL!!!!! A heart?! Why in the world would I include a heart and I don’t talk anything like this. ‘tomorrow can’t come soon enough’ – she’s going to think I’m a world-class weirdo!” Crystal reprimands the girl standing in front of her. <em>“I don’t talk like that, Jaida Essence Hall, you beautiful and evil human.” </em></p><p>“You already are a world-class weirdo and she’s already shown interest in your whole vibe. The tension between you two at Mantione’s was too much. You got electrocuted in front of her, my god, Crys, you’ve already thoroughly embarrassed yourself so just go for it.”</p><p>“Wow, Jaida you sure know how to boost my confidence,” Crystal says sarcastically.</p><p>“Look, I know you. You’re never going to do something like this unless you are pushed. Blame the dumb text on me, whatever. Just don’t chicken out on meeting up with her tomorrow. If you don’t do it right away, you’re never going to,” Jaida says with full confidence, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Crystal. “Plus a dark storage room, just the two of you…” Jaida says, leaning in closer to the once again seated Crystal, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.</p><p>“Jaidaaaaa,” Crystal complains, ready to melt into the floor until her phone alert goes off again. Another text from Gigi.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>Sounds goode. See you then! &lt;33333333333333333333333333333333</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>“Gigi Goode, what are you trying to do?” </em>Crystal thinks, looking at Gigi’s exaggerated hearts and the clever use of her last name. No doubt, much like getting in on the electrocution jokes at the pizza shop earlier, Gigi is flexing her sense of humor. Crystal loves it.</p><p>As Crystal frets over every aspect of her meeting Gigi the next day and Jan gushes about how much she loves getting to know Gigi, the girls all settle onto the floor of the living room, padded with all the blankets and pillows available in Crystal’s apartment. Adventure Time is still on, and the girls pass around the delicious dark chocolate cake that both Heidi and Aiden take credit for.</p><p>Jaida and Jan are trying to figure out how best to be close to each other without letting the other one know how much they want to be close to each other and Heidi and Aiden settle in closer to Crystal. “Proud of you Crys,” Aiden says in a whisper.</p><p>“Yeah. So very proud of you for telling us,” Heidi adds, sleepily. It’s one of the last coherent things that is said before they all drift off into dreamland.</p><p>___</p><p>The next morning, a significantly brighter morning than some of the mornings before, Crystal arises to the familiar, yet more distant sound of her neon clock radio switching on in her bedroom. 7:30 am. “Roll Call!”  is on. Crystal, more energetic than usual, feeling temporarily spiritually revived from her time with her friends, steps carefully over Heidi and Aiden, looking back at her friends to see Jaida sleeping on Jan’s shoulder with Jan’s arms wrapped around her. Crystal smiles at the cuteness and walks to her room to get ready for work and also her first meeting with Gigi, all while listening to Gigi’s segment with the goal of not falling asleep before it.</p><p>As Crystal clads herself in a loose-fitting blue and white patchwork short-sleeved button down that she ties in a knot at her bellybutton, a high-waisted pastel blue skirt, red platform boots and lots of plastic jewelry, she is awestruck by the sheer confidence and suaveness in Gigi’s segment delivery. Even as she talks about the history of the neighborhood murals that Crystal has seen most of her life, Crystal is thoroughly fascinated by how Gigi talks about them. It takes a special skill to be able to describe something visual with such clarity and precision on an audio platform. Crystal can picture each of the murals Gigi talks about perfectly and honestly didn’t know too much about the ones on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Listening to Gigi today makes Crystal sad that she missed yesterday’s “Goode Art.” Crystal will certainly never fall asleep again before “Roll Call!”</p><p>After Jackie’s sign off, Crystal then leaves her room to find Heidi in the kitchen, yawning and leaning on the counter. Crystal is about to poke Heidi to wake her up a bit more when she receives two texts.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Take care of Baby Geege today. Try not to hurt yourself my darling! </strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Jackie. Crystal can hear every word of the text in Jackie’s voice and rolls her eyes. Jackie is the mastermind behind all of this.<em>“Yeah yeah yeah, Jackie…thanks a lot for this,” </em>Crystal thinks, not sure how she should feel about the fact Jackie is now basically forcing Gigi to hang around Crystal up to the Halloween Festival. Crystal knows this is part of Jackie’s masterplan to bring about her fortune, but Crystal is not going to necessarily turn down help since the Halloween Festival is such a big undertaking. Crystal then looks at her other text and her face immediately feels warm.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>See you later at the alley!! &lt;333333333333333333333333333</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Hearts again. Gigi Goode you think you’re really funny, don’t you?” </em>
</p><p>Heidi makes Crystal green tea and offers to straighten up the place after everyone wakes up. Crystal agrees and hugs Heidi, thanking her (and telling Heidi to thank the others as well) for everything. Heidi sends Crystal off to work at Methyd Records with a kiss on the cheek like they’ve been married for 70 years and a “bye honey bun!” Crystal laughs, feeling more at ease for a moment. As she approaches the record store, however, Crystal begins to feel nervous about meeting Gigi like she was last night. This wasn’t going to be a quick thing like at the pizza shop. This involved spending actual time with Gigi and talking to her. <em>“How do I talk to stunningly beautiful girls again?” </em>Crystal asks herself, since it’s been so long.</p><p>The workday at the record shop is fairly normal and is made even better when Jan and Jaida come in the afternoon to help out. In the early evening, Aiden walks by the store on her way home from the market to make weird faces at Crystal through the window and wish her luck on her meeting with Gigi using exaggerated hand and mouth movements. The customers look very puzzled why the goth is flailing about in front of the window, but Crystal understands Aiden perfectly and blows her a kiss to thank her.</p><p>The end of the workday comes far quicker than Crystal is prepared for and it is now time to close up shop and get to the bowling alley to meet Gigi. Crystal tries to adjust her hair and makeup using the front-facing camera on her phone and as always, can’t tame her curls whatsoever. <em>“This is as good as it’s gonna get,” </em>Crystal thinks. She locks up the store and slowly heads over to the alley, heart beating louder with every step until she passes the radio station and reaches the alley. Crystal walks in, not remembering if Gigi and her agreed where they were going to meet. Crystal is prepared to talk to Widow and play in the arcade while she waits for the radio star, but Gigi is already there talking to Rock and Widow by the front desk.</p><p>Gigi is wearing another perfectly-tailored mini dress, this time bright orange, adorned with some orange buttons. Her auburn hair that has been feathered and parted down the middle thus far is pin straight and parted slightly to the side, making Gigi look beautiful in an entirely different way. Her lipstick is orange to match her outfit and Crystal feels as though she will short circuit, much like the watered-down turntable. Widow is the first to spot the increasingly shy Crystal, which causes Gigi to turn around.</p><p>Crystal can’t tell as she is impossibly oblivious, but Gigi can’t stop looking at Crystal either. Gigi is fully not prepared to see Crystal’s tanned and somewhat defined legs coming toward her and even less prepared to see a peek of skin that is showing through where Crystal knotted her shirt at her bellybutton. <em>“Look more perfect, I fucking  dare you,” </em>Gigi thinks. The two girls seem to be in a trance until Widow suggests that Rock show them to the storage area in the basement. They both nod and follow Rock to a hidden door behind the front desk which when opened, reveals some concrete stairs leading down into the basement.</p><p>“There may or may not be spiders down there, so just look alive,” Rock says, smiling. “Protect each other,” she adds, smiling knowingly. Crystal hasn’t known Rock for too long, but when she got to town a year ago to take digital design classes at the college and began working for Widow for some extra cash, Crystal and her bonded over big makeup, video games, and junk food. Although Crystal hasn’t known Rock for that long, she knows when Rock knows the gossip that Widow is so skilled at passing along. Crystal immediately knows Rock knows about the fortune.</p><p>Not a single word has been said between the Gigi and Crystal as they walk down the stairs, Crystal leading the way to the large open part of the basement that houses equipment and tools as well as posters, tents, tables, and chairs, all recycled every year for the open air arts market that takes place during the festival. As Gigi looks around, she finally is able to overcome her shyness and the loud thumping of her heart to say something.</p><p>“Thanks for meeting me here. I’m excited to get started! Whatever you need, I’m your girl!” Gigi says, looking at Crystal, waiting for a response. Crystal catches herself before she can short circuit again at the sound of Gigi’s voice.</p><p>“Yeah! Um…awesome. Thank you for helping me out, this event can be a lot…” Crystal answers. Gigi thinks Crystal’s voice is one of a cartoon character or even a Muppet. <em>“Like if Kermit the frog smoked a lot of pot,” </em>Gigi thinks, also thinking that it is very, very adorable. Silence fills the room again.</p><p>"Oh! I got to know Jan some more yesterday! She's awesome," Gigi adds, wincing internally. <em>"Gigi, just converse normally, you idiot!" </em></p><p>"Oh yeah, she's a gem. Even though she talks about me like I'm an old woman," Crystal says, chuckling and rolling her eyes. This is when Gigi notices just how big and shiny Crystal's deep brown eyes are. Gigi becomes aware of how long she has been staring at Crystal so she quickly changes the subject. </p><p>“So, what can I help you with down here?” Gigi asks, regaining her composure.</p><p>“Yeah yeah yeah...um…I think we can take inventory of what’s here for the arts market and then I can talk you through how the festival sort of goes and we can go from there.” Crystal answers. “It’s kind of creepy down here so we can do this quickly and then go to my store to finish up if that’s cool…” Crystal adds, suddenly feeling very forward, inviting Gigi to her store at night. <em>"Crystal, contain yourself please." </em></p><p>“Sounds great! Would it help if I take that side of the room, and you take this one?” Gigi asks, not wanting to ruin any system Crystal might have. Crystal, the personification of at times organized chaos, doesn’t have much of a clear-cut system.</p><p>“Um…sure!” Crystal answers, voice echoing through the hollow basement space. The two girls get to work counting the different materials and tools that the basement held. Gigi finishes quite quickly, checking her work twice and chuckles silently at Crystal talking to herself as she counted the items on her side. Gigi then notices that there is an extra table she didn’t account for and goes to try to move it to sit with the rest of the tables that are leaning on the wall to her left. As she does this, she reveals a little family of spiders, the very same spiders that Rock warned them about. Gigi lets out a high-pitched yelp and runs over to Crystal, wrapping her arms around the other girl out of fear, not truly paying attention to what she is doing. </p><p>“Crystal, there are spiders over there They do NOT look friendly!” Gigi says, hugging Crystal tighter. <em>"Fuck looking perfect right now, Gigi Goode does NOT do spiders!" </em></p><p>If Gigi wasn’t taller than Crystal, she probably would have jumped right into Crystal’s tattooed arms like a cliched damsel in distress. Gigi has managed to knock the air right out of Crystal’s lungs. She can barely  register what is happening – Gigi Goode, hugging her, their faces just inches from each other. Gigi’s hands are cold on her skin and her hair smells of coconut. Before Crystal can do anything, the two girls hear some unsettling sounds and now Crystal is convinced the spiders are after them too.</p><p>“NOPE! Not today, Satan! C’mon we’re going!” Crystal announces. The two walk quickly up the stairs and Crystal is very conscious that the still-scared Gigi is holding on to her arm like her life depends on it.</p><p>When they reach the top of the stairs, Gigi is still holding on to Crystal. When Rock turns around to see the two slightly disheveled and wide-eyed girls, smirks at them from her seat at the front desk. “Get a room, you two. You both have apartments, you don’t have to use the basement,” Rock says, jokingly but fully aware of what she is doing.</p><p>Gigi drops Crystal's arm and both feel the loss. Crystal and Gigi’s faces are red as tomatoes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Rock is a legend and I love this chapter so much!! Seeing a little bit more about Gigi is heartwarming!! I think writing friendships along with awkward lesbians is my favorite. I won't give anything away for the next chapter, but lets just say some more clever aunties come into the mix. Thank you SO much for reading and if you have any ideas or predictions I would loveee to hear them!!! &lt;3 ALSO watch G3t Dust3d 3 - Th3 Movi3 to see LEGENDS performing 🥰🥰</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. You Guys Are In On It Too?!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Dahlia. For now, hold off on the queer erotica, we haven’t even gotten these dorks to hug yet,” Jaida says, not wanting to push too far.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My darling dears! I am back and I am so sorry for the wait! Things are really happening in this story and so I'm going to try to capitalize this momentum and get chapters out a little quicker. Although work is so busy and I'm packing for a big move, this brings me SO MUCH happiness I'll keep on doing my best!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>When they reach the top of the stairs, Gigi is still holding on to Crystal. When Rock turns around to see the two slightly disheveled and wide-eyed girls, smirks at them from her seat at the front desk. “Get a room, you two. You both have apartments, you don’t have to use the basement,” Rock says, jokingly but fully aware of what she is doing. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Both Crystal and Gigi’s faces are red as tomatoes. </em>
</p><p>Gigi loosens her grip on Crystal’s arm and both girls put their limbs at their sides, feeling the loss of warmth that was created when Gigi’s pale and rather bony arm was looped around Crystal’s olive-skinned tattooed one.</p><p>Rock, with her makeup that matched the eccentricity of Widow’s bowling alley, is as physically striking as her lack of filter. Crystal enjoys Rock’s company but truly not at this moment. <em>“Is there a reason everyone around here is betraying me and willfully embarrassing me in front of Gigi?! Get a room Rock?! A room for what…” </em>Crystal internally screams, finding herself getting quite warm even with her thin button-down and skirt.</p><p>“Hmm…okay...anyway! Gigi Goode, this is Rock M. Sakura aka Rock. She works here and she’ll be helping us out with transporting the stuff from spider central to the site where the art market component of the festival will happen,” Crystal says quickly and in all one breath before Rock can say anything else embarrassing.</p><p>Gigi has never heard her name said the way Crystal just said it. There is something about the strange, almost whimsical inflection Crystal puts on her words that makes Gigi want to take her hand in hers and stay like that.</p><p>“So nice to meet you, Rock,” Gigi says, a little too aggressively, trying to channel her energy away from wanting to hold Crystal’s hand to anything else.</p><p>“I loved your segment today. The murals don’t get enough recognition around here. Actually, my final art school project is actually turning some digital work into a large Pride mural on the south wall of the high school! That’ll be fully unveiled at the end of the year! If you ever want to cover the process…” Rock trails off, realizing her enthusiasm might scare off Gigi.</p><p>Gigi isn’t fazed by Rock’s intense excitement whatsoever and tries to match it in her response, despite being very aware of how close Crystal is to her. “That sounds amazing! Do you think I can get in on that after the Halloween Festival? I would love to be there every step of the way so your mural can get the recognition it deserves,” Gigi says, eagerly. Rock’s face lights up.</p><p>“Oh my gosh. Crys, can you imagine MY mural, the subject of “Roll Call?!” Rock asks gleefully. Crystal nods in complete agreement while looking at Rock while also being in awe of how Gigi can just gel with complete strangers. <em>“So charming and sweet,” </em>Crystal thinks.</p><p>“Rock, of course I can imagine it! You’re the undisputed, undefeated queen of art school and this place needs a Pride mural,” Crystal says encouragingly.</p><p>“Crys, c’mon. You’re a true art school legend. People still talk about your senior show, as they should. It’s the stuff of legend,” Rock responds, causing Crystal to blush in a different way. Her art school days are not something she had thought about in a while. The ending was not something she had ever expected, but when she was creating every day in her own studio space, especially for her senior show, she was in heaven. “And you best believe you’ll be in the mural,” Rock adds. Crystal looks at Rock with shock and confusion. Gigi makes a mental note to ask Crystal about her senior show.</p><p>“What do you mean?” Crystal asks, so used to being behind the scenes and not one for being the visual face of anything.</p><p>“It’s a Pride mural so I want to feature all of our queer icons in the neighborhood. Brita, Dahlia, Aiden, Heidi, Jackie, and of course you,” Rock says, matter-of-factly to an increasingly emotional Crystal. Crystal is honored and feels so touched that her fellow artist would want to paint her in a mural like that.</p><p>“I don’t know about icon, Rock…” Crystal replies quietly and humbly. Gigi’s heart flips. <em>“Crystal Methyd is 100% definitely queer…at least if she wasn’t, then I’d have an actual real, concrete reason not to go for it…ugh,” </em>Gigi thinks, in full distress mode. There is absolutely nothing other than Gigi’s rules she’s created for herself and the metaphorical wall she’s put up between her and any new relationship, in the way of her shooting her shot with the first person in a while she’s felt this attracted to. Even with Jan’s encouragement and blessing, it isn’t in Gigi’s nature to just go for things like that.</p><p>Crystal looks at Gigi’s strange facial expression and feels her heart sink. Gigi is simply in her own mind about things, but it sure looks a lot like discomfort over Rock announcing Crystal is queer to the curly-haired girl. Crystal hasn’t always been proud of who she is, working through a lot of shame and discomfort with herself in the years leading up to art school. As open as she is now, there is part of Crystal that wishes right then and there that Gigi announced her queerness too so they could be gay as hell together, rather than being some sort of “other.” The not knowing if Gigi accepted it, let alone if she is queer herself leaves Crystal feeling uneasy and momentarily lonely.</p><p>“Thank you, Rock. Please let me know how I can help you with the mural. I’m excited to see Gigi’s coverage of your work!” Crystal says, breaking out of her uneasiness a bit, genuinely happy for her artsy friend and excited for Gigi to have more content to work with for her segment. Crystal then gestures to the door, implying that the two take their evening work meeting elsewhere that isn’t so spider-y.</p><p>“Yes, thank you Rock. I will be seeing you and your incredible makeup soon,” Gigi says as she waves goodbye to Rock, leaving the colorful girl feeling very flattered.</p><p>Before exiting the alley, Crystal runs over to the arcade to hug Widow goodbye and inform her when she’ll be around to drop off records on the coming Sunday. Gigi watches Crystal closely, specifically the way Crystal seems to just float as moves, strange and fluid arm and hand movements punctuating and emphasizing her theatrical and cartoonish speech pattern. To Gigi, Crystal is from a different world altogether, and unlike anything Gigi has ever seen.</p><p>Her Crystal-gazing session is interrupted by Crystal herself returning to Gigi to ask if she’s ready to go. Gigi asks Crystal if there’s a spot they should meet regularly when they didn’t have to go on-site for festival setup. Crystal offers up Methyd Records both in general and to finish out their meeting that evening. Gigi is struck by the fact they’d be going to the place Gigi admired the previous morning while taking refuge under the store’s awning.</p><p>The two girls walk out of the alley into the street. The sun has set but there’s still a warm orange glow around the block coming from the streetlamps lit up against the navy sky. There is some more silence at first, both girls turning their heads slightly away from each other in order to scold themselves privately for not talking to the other. The first one to speak up is Gigi, just as Crystal is opening her mouth to say something.</p><p>“So…ah…sorry…” Gigi says when she realizes Crystal was about to say something.</p><p>“Um…no, no you go ahead,” Crystal says quickly, feeling discouraged that she cut Gigi off without even saying a word. <em>“Crystal try to show Gigi you’re a real person for one second,” </em>Crystal thinks to herself, loudly.</p><p>“Oh…I was just going to say it’s so cool how you know everyone around here,” Gigi says, putting her hands in the hidden pockets of her orange dress to stabilize herself. It’s not easy to feel stable when the object of your very-rapidly developing crush is walking with you on an autumn evening like this.</p><p>“Yeah it is, I guess. I’ve been here since I was born. Everyone knows everyone around here,” Crystal answers, breathing in the scent of freshly-baked pizza as they near Methyd Records with Mantione’s Pizza above it. Gigi nods, smiling, thinking of walking down the neighborhood’s streets on a Sunday afternoon, stopping to talk to every friendly face and doing so with ease and confidence. Everyone doesn’t just know Crystal, they love her and Gigi wants this for herself too.</p><p>“Not a thing back where you’re from?” Crystal asks, interrupting Gigi’s daydream.</p><p>“No not really. LA is really spread out and unless you live in an area where knowing your neighbors is possible, it’s just hard. I lived across the city from most of the people I knew so…” Gigi answers. “It was kind of hard to get to know people,” Gigi answers, looking down at her shoes.</p><p>“Oh. Well you really don’t have to worry about that here. As we work together, you’re gonna get to know my friends really well so you’ll definitely know people, I promise,” Crystal reassures Gigi, flashing her a toothy smile. Gigi can’t help but smile back and Crystal is taken aback. Not that Gigi comes off as unfriendly, but she does look like she could give some serious model face all day long. Her smile is even bigger than Crystals and just as goofy.</p><p>“Jan has made me feel that way already,” Gigi says in response, thankful that she met the blonde.</p><p>“Jan is the perfect person to welcome you," Crystal smiles and nods. </p><p>"She said the same thing about you, actually," Gigi says, looking down at her shoes while Crystal tries to compose herself. <em>"Jan somehow made Gigi think I'm an old woman but also talked me up...Jan is one of a kind." </em></p><p>"She's so nice. She’s basically a perpetual cheerleader without being a cliched high school bully,” Crystal says quickly, trying not to act like a fool at receiving such a compliment, only to be snapped out of it by Gigi having an epiphany. </p><p>“Yes! OH MY GOD! That’s it! A cheerleader! That’s totally her energy, I’ve been trying to put my finger on it since I met her!” Gigi says voice matching the tone and volume that she uses for her radio segment, a volume much louder than either of them have been talking at thus far. Gigi sees a couple of people around them on the street stare at her with amusement. <em>“Tone it down, Gigi, my god,” </em>she thinks. “I’m so sorry…that was a lot…” Gigi tries to explain.</p><p>“You really do have the voice and energy for radio!” Crystal says, matching Gigi’s energy and tone of voice, feeling more comfortable enough to make fun of Gigi just a bit. “You just sounded like your radio sign off,” Crystal adds, hoping Gigi’s reaction would be one of laughter and not of embarrassment.</p><p>“Wow, making fun of me already and we met just yesterday, huh?” Gigi asks, rolling her eyes playfully.</p><p>“Look, I literally electrocuted myself in front of you and then you seamlessly jumped in to make jokes about it with my friends! I think I deserve to make fun of you a little bit,” Crystal laughs as she relaxes a bit, knowing Gigi does find it funny.</p><p>“That’s true. I totally deserve it,” Gigi replies. “But always remember, you were way more embarrassing.”</p><p>“Well that’s a given,” Crystal agrees as she feels around in her pocket for her keys. They’re now under the awning that Gigi found herself under the day before. Gigi takes a second to notice just how close she and Crystal are again as they walk down the small concrete steps to the door for Methyd Records. As Gigi stands slightly behind and to the side of Crystal so she can unlock the door, the older girl’s lemon shampoo and the pleasant and warm, almost cinnamon-like scent that all vintage clothing seems to come with, surrounds Gigi. Gigi can also now see the intricacies of Crystal’s makeup. <em>“Jan was not kidding about the glitter.” </em></p><p>“You fully own the record store and like…run it by yourself?” Gigi asks, asking something seemingly innocuous she is wondering about to stop herself from her mind wandering. <em>“I’m Definitely NOT wondering how it feels to tangle my hands in her curls…” </em></p><p>“Um…” Crystal starts. “I’m kind of young for it I know, but I’ve been running it for a while now and everyone just helps whenever they can. It’s an institution around here,” Crystal answers, her breath hitching a bit as she feels her answer getting a little too close to the subject of her parents for her comfort.</p><p>“How old are you if, I may ask? It’s just so cool to have your own store…” Gigi trails off, seeing some sort of deeply sad look wash over Crystal’s face. Gigi wants to ask what she is thinking about, but refrains as it is there first time really talking to each other.  </p><p>“I’m 24 and it’s a lot of work but it is cool, I guess. It’s the kind of place that’s always been here and always will be. So will I,” Crystal answers softly as they as she pops open the door. Gigi senses there’s a lot more to Crystal’s story with Methyd Records. <em>“Just add it to the list of things I want to know about Crystal Methyd.” </em></p><p>Crystal realizes she is coming off quite sad and would probably make any sane person feel weird about it, but Gigi visibly and keenly listening to Crystal and taking in what she is saying tells Crystal that Gigi is not fazed by it. Crystal opens her mouth to say something again as they walk into the dark record store but is cut off by Gigi’s delightful reaction when the lights come on.</p><p>“I’ve died and gone to absolute heaven! Crystal!!!!!!” Gigi squeals in glee, the tone of her squeal almost at the same pitch as her terror-filled one when she spotted the spiders in the basement of the alley. Crystal wants what Gigi just said recorded and played on a loop in her mind forever.</p><p>“Why haven’t I come in here yet? This is such a dream. I know you’re technically closed but I haven’t been in a record store in forever and certainly never in one this big and sparkly! Do you have any original presses of ABBA but ones where they’re singing in Swedish?” Crystal has never seen someone so excited to come into her store. All of her new customers and regulars love it, but never do they gush like this within the first second of being inside. Crystal didn’t think she could find Gigi any more adorable but she is very wrong.</p><p>Crystal laughs and nods. Walking backwards over to a trough in the back corner of the store, keeping her eyes on the excited Gigi the whole time. Covered in stickers and signatures like all the others, this trough it hat Crystal arrives at is designated for European pop, disco, and other dance music. Rather than being organized alphabetically by specific music group, Crystal organizes this section by decade so people who are into, say, NENA’s 99 Red Balloons, can enjoy other music like that from the 80s. It’s Crystal’s system that she created when she inherited the store, wanting to act as an old-school Spotify recommendation algorithm and get people to enjoy more of what they like. Gigi watches as Crystal sifts through the records to find three original pressings of ABBA singing their songs in Swedish. Crystal holds them up and waves Gigi over.</p><p>“Oh my gosh. You found these so fast!” Gigi says in surprise, taking the records in her own hands and admiring them. “I know ABBA isn’t edgy or cool or anything, but I thought I’d send some back home to my mom. She and I listened to ABBA all the time and she’d love these. It’s a little embarrassing, but what can you do. Can I buy them from you now?” Gigi asks, her face visibly softening at the thought of her mother and her dancing around the house and making clothes as they listen to their greatest hits.</p><p>“You know, a lot of those hipster-y people come in here looking to be edgy and they put on this whole show about how hardcore and cool they are buying Halloween sound effect records and German death metal. I can see a performance like that from a mile away. I’d much rather people just buy what they’re actually into without feeling embarrassed. I love ABBA and my mom and I used to listen to them too,” Crystal tells Gigi. Gigi can’t believe someone as objectively cool as Crystal would like ABBA, a band so many found so very uncool. Then again, Gigi is sure Crystal was one one of those alternative goddesses everyone secretly wanted to be in high school because she was so herself  at all times. Hiding something like genuinely loving a band didn’t seem like something she would do.</p><p>Gigi also picks up on Crystal mentioning her mother for the first time. <em>“If she’s lived here her whole life…does she have family around?” </em>Gigi asks herself.</p><p>“Also keep them. No charge,” Crystal says. Gigi focuses back on the records in her hands.</p><p>“Oh I can’t just take them,” Gigi replies, holding the records in one hand and trying to get her credit card out of her phone pocket with the other.</p><p>“Gigi, no charge. Seriously. I want them to go to someone who loves them. Consider them a thank you for helping me with the Halloween Festival stuff,” Crystal says, once again making Gigi’s heart flip at the sound of her name coming from Crystal’s mouth.</p><p>“Thank you, Crystal,” Gigi says quietly, head down to her chin, trying to conceal the blush that is creeping over her pale face.</p><p>“Don’t mention it at all!” Crystal says, happy the original pressings have found a new home. “So anything I should know now that I let you into my store and you murder me like a murderer who loves murdering?” Crystal asks. Gigi laughs out loud. It is the kind of laugh that you could pick out of a room of thousands of people. Crisp and rather dorky, despite Gigi’s cool façade.</p><p>“I’m not a murderer, I promise. Just a 22 year-old radio personality living in a new place,” Gigi replies, still laughing at Crystal’s murderer comment.</p><p>“Moving to a new place very far away from home at 22. That’s gutsy. How did you find this place all the way from LA?” Crystal asks, impressed that Gigi moved across the country at such a relatively young age. When Crystal was 22, she was fully operating the store with absolutely no plans to move or travel. Crystal cannot imagine doing something so adventurous like starting a new life entirely.</p><p>“Yeah it’s kind of wild. I needed a change and I got into radio my last year of living in LA. Then I went searching for smaller cities and towns where someone like me, young and rather inexperienced could work a radio job – I was thinking mostly along the lines of technical assistance or something. Somehow, I got this job with Jackie. It’s a big thing but it happened so fast, I didn’t really stop to think about how objectively I guess, crazy it was to just up and move,” Gigi explains leaving out the more dramatic reasons behind her move that she sort of opened up to Jan about.</p><p>“It’s pretty badass,” Crystal says in return, noticing that normally confident aura Gigi gives off changed a bit when talking about her big move. Crystal isn’t one to pry into the lives of people she doesn’t know well, so she changes the subject and asks Gigi if she’s ready to talk about the Halloween Festival. Gigi nods, feeling relieved that Crystal saved her from talking more about it. Jan knows about her feelings and reservations which is good enough for Gigi for now. <em>“I have to remain somewhat professional for the Halloween Festival. This is a big one,” </em>Gigi has to remind herself as she and Crystal set up a little workspace on the checkout counter, with the girls on either side of it. They’re close enough to hold hands and close enough to pretend to not be admiring the other.</p><p>“So Jackie probably told you a lot already, but basically we have this huge Halloween Festival where everyone comes together to celebrate Halloween and to highlight all the amazing art that’s created around the neighborhood. When I was young, the arts market was in the summer, but everyone complained it was too hot to enjoy, so it was moved to be part of the Halloween celebration because October here is perfect,” Crystal explains excitedly, letting go of some of her nervousness that comes from being around Gigi.</p><p>“We don’t have to worry so much about the Halloween aspect of it. Our wheelhouse is the arts stuff. There’s kind of like 5 big phases to getting the arts logistics together and then a whole week before the festival dedicated to getting to know all the artisans and performers and helping get them everything they need. You’re welcome to cover whatever you want for your segment and ask any and all questions,” Crystal continues. Gigi could listen to Crystal all day long. As Crystal begins to diagram the 5 logistical phases for the arts market including equipment transport, getting permits, and creating an updated registration application for any new artists who want to sign up to be part of the market, Gigi finds herself really wanting to go over to Crystal’s side of the counter, wrap her arms around Crystals waist, and continue to listen to Crystal talk about something she loves so much.</p><p>Although Gigi doesn’t do this, when she sees Crystal getting a bit overwhelmed as she’s diagramming the last of the complex phases, Gigi does reach out, placing her hand over Crystal’s free, non-writing hand. Both girls feel a small jolt of energy passing between them as contact is made, as if they were both being mildly electrocuted. Crystal looks up and blushes, but also nods her head as if to thank Gigi for being around to help her.</p><p>Eventually Gigi does end up on Crystal’s side of the counter, her excuse being that she’ll be able to see the diagrams better. The girls are now sitting right next to each other with their shoulders touching.</p><p>While Crystal is explaining some of the smaller subtasks for the arts market and Gigi takes notes and makes lists for her on huge pieces of lined paper, Jaida walks by the front window of Methyd Records as she comes out of Mantione’s pizza holding her takeaway order. Since Methyd Records is usually not lit up like this at night, Jaida immediately spots Gigi and Crystal talking to each other and laughing at very close proximity. Jaida almost drops her food in excitement and “I told you so” energy. Smirking as she watches the two girls awkwardly but endearingly plan the festival with their body languages clearly saying that they’re into each other, Jaida puts down her food for a moment and takes out her phone. She calls Jackie.</p><p>“Helloooo! Jaida my beautiful accomplice is that you?” Jackie sings into the phone.  </p><p>“Auntie Jacks. This is important. They’re together now planning for Halloween and it’s all happening. I’m looking at them right now. They’re super super into each other. It's clear as day. I think we need to move to phase 2 to keep the momentum going,” Jaida says, quietly, moving out of Gigi and Crystal’s line of vision in an effort to not disturb Crystal and Gigi and blow her cover.  </p><p>“Jaida Essence Hall. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Jackie responds very seriously as she can be heard dialing. In reality, it’s been a very short time since the fortune was revealed, but Jackie has been trying extra hard to get Crystal to date someone since Nicky. This is the most promising match Jackie has facilitated in a while. Jaida wonders who Jackie is adding to their call but is not surprised at all when two familiar voices come on the line.</p><p>“What’s up?” the calm, sultry voice of Dahlia sin comes in on the speakers, followed by a very loud and raspy “HEY YA’LL!” from Brita.</p><p>“Oh shit! You guys are in on it too?!” Jaida asks excitedly. Brita and Dahlia see and hear everything that happens around the neighborhood and like Jackie, the two cousins love involving themselves in the lives and shenanigans of the younger girls in the neighborhood.</p><p>“Absolutely, girl! Jacks gave us an idea that someone new in town would be perfect for Crystal and then told us when “phase 2” or whatever came along, we’d have to get involved. I’m not one for forcing romance, but I’ve heard they’re connection is <em>electric,</em>” Dahlia explains, and all four of them roar with laughter. The electricity puns will not get old.</p><p>“YA’LL! What if we get them to them to the vintage shop somehow? A cute little gay as hell fashion show moment is right out of an 80s lesbian romance movie,” Brita says, almost blowing out the speaker with her cackle.</p><p>“I love that idea, Brita!” Jackie says in full agreement.</p><p>"Of fucking course you do! I'm FULL of excellent ideas," Brita says in response which is met by her cousin laughing mercilessly at her. </p><p>“Brita, shut up! This sounds like a good plan and all but remember, when the time is right, I’ll get them to my side of the shop,” Dahlia says, suggestively.</p><p>“Dahlia. For now, hold off on the queer erotica, we haven’t even gotten these dorks to hug yet,” Jaida says, not wanting to push too far.</p><p>“I heard from Widow that they came up from the basement at the alley looking disheveled and Gigi was holding on to Crystal like she never wanted to let go,” Dahlia says, defending her suggestion.</p><p>“Widow, who will be in phase 3, by the way, can exaggerate quite a bit. Especially with little Rock around. They’re always taking the goings-on around town and turning up the exaggerations to a level 12,” Jaida warns, not believing for a second that anything actually happened in the basement knowing her awkward best friend.</p><p>“IT’S GONNA HAPPEN SOOON THOUGH!!” Brita laughs.</p><p>“Just focus on phase 2. Lesbian fashion show, okay? Jaida, you get intel on when they’re going to meet next at Methyd Records and Brita, find a way to get them into your shop. Dahlia, turn on some good music and help Brita find outfits for them to try on and cuteness will ensue,” Jackie, the master of plans, explains. “Everyone agree with this plan, and ONLY this plan?” Jackie asks, voice directed at Dahlia, making sure she doesn’t jump the gun with the erotica stuff.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. I got you,” Dahlia replies, clearly disappointed that she can't make any sex toy recommendations at this moment in time.</p><p>“Okay everyone, I’m gonna go eat my pizza now before it gets cold so I’ll talk to you all when I find out when their next meeting is,” Jaida whispers, bidding Dahlia, Brita, and Jackie goodbye.</p><p>“Ooo you always eat pizza, Jaida. Was it freshly baked by someone special? Does your pizza have purple glitter all over it by chance?” Dahlia asks, teasing Jaida before the call ends.</p><p>“Dahliaaaa. Mantione’s is the best pizza in a 50 mile radius. That’s all!” Jaida defends, getting very warm in the face thinking about Jan and thinking about how totally not subtle it is to be in Mantione’s so much.</p><p>“You’re allowed to feel the Jantasy, Jaida. It’s okay!” Jackie reassures, making Jaida yearn to be struck by lightning at that moment.</p><p>“Okay, everyone. I’m going! I’ll call you when I know when Gigi and Crystal are getting together again,” Jaida says quickly and hangs up before any more teasing from her aunties. <em>“Fucking Aunt Jackie. I'm totally feeling the Jantasy. Ugh, is it that obvious?” </em>Jaida thinks and rolls her eyes, as she picks up her food from the concrete and scurries away towards her apartment, as to not be seen by Crystal and Gigi.  </p><p>Let phase 2, the lesbian fashion show, commence.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>HI HI HI &lt;3 Crystal and Gigi are such cuties getting all close to plan for the festival. This chapter may seem like a bit of a filler but it sets up what will be possibly my favorite chapter yet!! CHAPTER 8! and I am so excited for it - LESBIAN FASHION SHOW OMG &lt;3 Let me know in the comments what you think may happen while they plan for the Halloween fest over the next couple of chapters &lt;3 &lt;3 Also, anyone notice that for the chapter summaries, I just put one of my favorite lines in there for fun? Let me know what your favorite line is in this one &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Lesbian Fashion Show</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“The next big thing will be cold pressed artisanal air served in an avocado grown in Gwyneth Paltrow’s backyard that was blessed the pope,” Crystal thinks to herself, bewildered by the concept of drinking green mush from a test tube but also worried about having glass containers in her store with so many people around.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>HI HI my lovely readers &lt;3 I have missed you all so much and am so grateful for the comments I got in between chapter postings - you are all so sweet and patient and I am so happy I began writing this story because I get to talk to all of you!! I love this chapter - it might be my favorite so far because it incorporates so many things I love. Thank you again for reading and I apologize for the delay!!! I hope you all enjoy &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A few days after Crystal and Gigi’s first real Halloween Festival meeting have passed and it’s now Thursday morning. Crystal wakes up happily to the sound of “Roll Call!” coming on and her apartment filling with the sounds of Jackie’s impersonations and comedy bits about the weather. Today, Gigi jumps in before “Goode Art” and plays along with everything Jackie throws at her. Crystal knew Gigi had a sense of humor, but it absolutely delights Crystal to hear just how silly Gigi can be as well.</p><p>Crystal is particularly happy and excited on this day for a few reasons. As she puts on some denim bell bottoms that she embroidered with colorful flowers and their stems herself, paired with a denim button down and a vest covered in patches she earned over the years at summer camp, she thinks about Gigi insisting that they meet today again to get deeper into the planning. Crystal suggested they get pizza from Mantione’s and plan for the supply runs they’re going to need to make and to draft an online application for new artists and performers at Methyd Records, which Gigi affectionately began referring to as “HQ” as Crystal walked her through the phases of the planning that she diagrammed for Gigi. As Crystal decides between her docs and scuffed-up lime green boots with a clear, acrylic heel to complete her colorful and almost-childish psychedelic look, Crystal begins to think about how close Gigi was sitting next to her by the end of their first meeting and how natural it felt to sit shoulder to shoulder with her. Contact with someone she liked as more than a friend that didn’t feel strained or desperate or just normal is pretty foreign to Crystal, especially knowing how hard she had to fight for Nicky’s attention and affection when they were dating during school.</p><p>Not wanting to ruin one bit of her good unusually good mood, Crystal then thinks about some additional exciting things. Crystal’s little brother called her on Wednesday morning to tell her that his school was giving all the upperclassmen 3 weeks off from classes and extracurriculars to tour colleges. Crystal was surprised by this since she went to the local high school and they did not give much time off for the college search. Her little brother, however, attends the private school nearby on an academic scholarship and this break for college tours was apparently a tradition to ensure each student got exposure to the schools on their lists. <em>“Fancy private school that looks more like a hotel,” </em>Crystal thinks to herself, proud of how smart and hardworking her brother is. He told her that he’d stay at home to spend time with her for 2 of the weeks and said even though he knew he wanted to go to the college nearby, he’d go support his friends on their college search in New York City during the last week of the break. Crystal was over the moon when he told her that because even though he was still in town going to school, their schedules, save for the occasional slice of pizza, did not overlap much.</p><p>Crystal breathes in the steam of her green tea while leaning against her kitchen counter, taking in the last few moments of “Roll Call!” before going to work. Gigi’s voice does something to Crystal. It gives her the very same feeling she felt when Gigi looped herself around Crystal’s arm at the sight of some spiders and the same jolt she felt when Gigi touched her hand when the amount of work ahead of them hit Crystal like a truck while she was diagramming the difference phases of the Halloween Festival planning. As much as Crystal will deny it, she was indeed dressing for their meeting today. A denim on denim outfit designed by her that made her feel the most like herself, with a little extra something special to stand out.</p><p>Having settled on her green boots and feeling extra tall and colorful, Crystal hops back into her room one more time to switch off her neon green alarm clock and put on some outrageously large plastic earrings before heading out the door for work. Thursday’s could be busy at Methyd Records, but nothing, not a busy work schedule or upcoming planning, not her bills or the grief nagging at the back of her head, could take away how grateful she is feeling for this particular time. For the time that she gets to plan with Gigi and the quality time she’ll be able to spend with her own flesh and blood starting today. This moment is a rare one when she didn’t feel as lonely.</p><p>Crystal’s morning at work is spent by herself, which is okay with her because she wants to mentally prepare for her meeting with Gigi. An hour and a half after opening, Crystal’s daydream about paddle boating on a lake with Gigi while the dulcet tones of Sixpence None The Richer’s Leigh Nash sings an acoustic version of <em>There She Goes, </em>is interrupted by a flood of customers. Some are true townies, some are new residents, and some are people passing through for something vintage and Instagrammable to accompany their pressed juices in served in what looked like test tubes from a lab. <em>“The next big thing will be cold pressed artisanal air served in an avocado grown in Gwyneth Paltrow’s backyard that was blessed the pope,” </em>Crystal thinks to herself, bewildered at the concept of drinking green mush from a test tube but also worried about having glass containers in her store with so many people around. Crystal handles the rush well, peddling large amount of dreamy bedroom pop to bespectacled normcore fanatics, introducing the wonders of contemporary jazz legend, Kamasi Washington to a group of teenagers, and popping some of Jan’s left over Italian rainbow cookies in her mouth behind the check-out counter whenever she gets the chance. Crystal is feeling like she is on a roll and as if she could just float on through the workday and seamlessly into her evening planning with Gigi.</p><p>The energy in the record shop changes when a strange, tall man, dressed in an obviously expensive black suit walks in. He has straight silver hair that falls in soft waves around his angular and quite intimidating high cheek-boned face. It is the man’s outfit and highly confident demeanor that immediately stands out from a sea of knit sweaters and midi-length sundresses covered by tan duster coats. Crystal follows the man with her eyes as he walks further into the store and takes off his sunglasses, revealing piercing blue eyes. Ice cold. Crystal has never seen this man in her life. She would have remembered such a striking and ominous-looking figure. The young store owner continues to watch as the man walks around the store, occasionally leafing through the troughs filled with classic rock albums. She sees him bend down and make his way through a small basket of random used 45s and sees him pick out a live George Benson recording and make his way to the checkout counter. Crystal has to admit the man has good taste in music. The man leans against the counter, crossing his long legs that are capped off with shiny Armani loafers. <em>“Is he a spy? He looks like a Batman villain,” </em>Crystal thinks as the man hands her the record to purchase it. She can’t bring herself to make full eye contact with the strange man until she hands him a paper bag with his 45 in it and his heavy, along with the black and gold metal credit card that he paid for the record with. Crystal is stunned at just how blue his eyes are. After what seemed like ten minutes of looking at the man and trying to figure out his deal, the man finally speaks in a low, raspy voice with a British-adjacent Mid-Atlantic drawl as if he were a screen actor from the 1940s. <em>“Oh man. I know a villain when I see one,” </em>Crystal thinks as soon as the man’s voice reaches her ears.</p><p>“Are you the owner of this place?” the man asks the stunned Crystal.</p><p>“Um…yeah,” Crystal replies, her voice going up at the end as if to ask a question.</p><p>“It’s a good place. Good bones. I’ll be back sometime soon,” the man says as he collects his things from the counter and puts his sunglasses back on. Crystal is so utterly confused she cannot even find words to thank him for his purchase. The man turns sharply away from the counter, takes one last look at Methyd Records, and walks out the door at a fast pace. Crystal can’t help but look at the man as he exists, noticing him take out a phone and begin to call someone as soon as he gets up the concrete stairs and through the gate.</p><p><em>“Fuck. I have no idea what that was, but I know it is not good…” </em>Crystal thinks, making a mental note to tell her friends about the Karl Lagerfeld-Mr. Freeze hybrid that she just encountered.</p><p>____</p><p>After this strange interaction and several more hours of work, Crystal has to force her aching feet (this was not the day to wear acrylic heels to work) to carry her up the stairs to Mantione’s to meet Gigi. Getting to the top of the stairs in front of the door to the pizza shop, Crystal feels like she has climbed Everest and lifts her arms over her head in triumph. She opens the door and the emotional crooning of Claudio Villa fills and the smell of half-baked dough and cured meats hits her hard. Crystal breathes in the familiar scents and sounds of Mantione’s and walks in to find a table to wait at. Almost all the tables are filled, including one of them which is occupied by Heidi and Aiden, looking quite cozy while laughing at something on Heidi’s phone. Normally, after a long day like this one, she would throw herself down at a table and stuff an entire pizza in her mouth, but she wants to maintain some semblance of decorum in front of Gigi. Crystal didn’t think they were at “eat a whole pizza like a rabid animal in front of each other” phase yet so instead, Crystal goes over to say hello to them and tell her about the Batman villain that came to the store. In the middle of her story, Gigi walks in wearing a pair of tight white shorts with a tight-fitting floral half-turtleneck, topped off with a white mesh ascot tied around her neck. Crystal almost audibly gasped. Gigi looked like a movie star on vacation in her look and Crystal could not take her eyes off of the tall, auburn-haired beauty.</p><p>Gigi sees Crystal looking as colorful as ever and walks over to her, her baby blue patent leather shoes that looked like they belonged to a modern-day Louis IXV, making a sophisticated clacking noise against the tile floor of Mantione’s. Gigi looked like a model and walked like owned the modeling agency.</p><p>“Hi,” Gigi says as she gets closer to Crystal, the full impact of Crystal’s embroidered denim outfit hitting her. Like Crystal, Gigi can’t keep her eyes off the other girl. Crystal’s heels made her stand slightly taller than Gigi and the green stems Crystal clearly and beautifully embroidered herself that run from her mid-thigh to the hem of the jeans both enhanced the length of Crystal’s legs and accentuated the curves of her thighs. Gigi thinks that Crystal cannot look more perfect.</p><p>“Hey!” Crystal says, much too loudly. Crystal looks down, feeling stupid while Aiden and Heidi can be heard chuckling behind Crystal. Gigi doesn’t seem to notice how weirdly loud Crystal’s greeting is. She smiles, the thin white line that highlights her cupids bow curling up along with her smile in a way that Crystal finds impossibly irresistible. Gigi, feeling ever more comfortable around Crystal, boldly puts her hand on Crystal’s shoulder. Crystal feels the very same jolt she felt the first couple of times she felt Gigi’s touch.</p><p>“You ready to stuff our faces with pizza and get to some more planning?” Gigi laughs. Crystal is shocked at first, but eases up a little when she realizes that Gigi did think they were at the “eat a whole pizza like a rabid animal in front of each other” phase.</p><p>“Yeah yeah yeah. Absolutely. Let’s do this,” Crystal responds with an enthusiastic nod. The two girls go up to the counter and order from Jan’s cousin and take their pizzas down to Methyd Records, but not before waving to Aiden and Heidi.</p><p>“They’re so cute together,” Gigi says absentmindedly, as the two of them turn to leave Mantione’s.</p><p>“Ugh. I wish they were together. My best friends, Jaida too, all have a knack for liking someone a ton but not acting on those feelings,” Crystal says, laughing at first but then realizing she is being completely hypocritical. Crystal visibly blushes, as she does so often when she is around Gigi.</p><p>“Wait. Jaida?” Gigi asks, not noticing Crystal’s deep-red blush that is serving as a base for her metallic rainbow highlighter splashed across her cheekbones.</p><p>“Yeah. Jaida is clearly very in love with Jan. It’s very cute, but I don’t know if she’ll ever act on it,” Crystal explains, not sure why it’s so easy to talk to Gigi.</p><p>“Oh man!” Gigi exclaims as they walk into Methyd Records. Crystal turns around thinking Gigi tripped and broke her neck or something.</p><p>“What happened?! Are you okay?” Crystal asks, hastily throwing down her pizza on the counter, not caring how obvious her concern for Gigi is.  </p><p>“Yeah I’m fine but oh my god! Jan literally told me she’s in love with Jaida. Like head over heels for her!” Gigi squeals, taking Crystal’s hands in hers and giving them a squeeze. Crystal feels warm. And soft. “I know I don’t know Jan well and don’t really know Jaida at all but this makes me really happy,” Gigi admits, not wanting to let go of Crystal’s slightly-calloused hands. Crystal can’t believe that the coupling of the two queen J’s could be a thing. The girls talk a little more about Jan and Jaida, gushing about how cute the two would be if they really started dating, and then they move on to planning.</p><p>Crystal gets out her laptop covered in stickers and pulls up a previous version of the new artist and performer application that people used to apply for stands at the art market last year. Once again, Gigi is sitting extremely close to Crystal on the same side of the counter except this time, Gigi’s crossed legs that are dangling from the stools they’re sitting on are almost tangled with Crystal’s because of the angle Gigi is sitting at. Crystal tries not to breathe or make any sudden movements to give away how happy she is to be next to Gigi while she shows the girl how to format the application, what edits it needs, and how to upload it to the neighborhood website once the its finished. The two girls also talk about particularly interesting aspects of the Halloween Festival that Gigi can cover for “Goode Art.” Crystal is having an absolute blast talking with Gigi and nibbling on pizza crust, watching for Gigi’s reactions to everything. When Gigi finds something really funny, she bends at the waist and claps, letting out a string of audible and silent giggles. Gigi’s reactions then have Crystal laughing in a vicious cycle until both girls’ stomachs are cramping.</p><p>The conversations between them flow more easily and although the subject matter is on the lighter side, Crystal can’t help but feel the connection between them grow stronger and a bit deeper. <em>“Whether or not the fortune is real, this is good,” </em>Crystal thinks, not knowing that Gigi is thinking how good this is too. An hour in to the planning, Gigi and Crystal get up to stretch their legs and Gigi wanders over to the troughs of records. As Gigi flips through various genres of alternative 80s music while Crystal goes into the back office to make some mildly-caffeinated instant tea. While Crystal is in the back, Gigi notices two women wander into her sightline outside of the store.</p><p>One of the women has perfectly-coiffed red hair with a golden sheen to it. She is wearing a royal blue vintage dress that hugs every one of her curves perfectly and blue pill box hat and stunningly-blended and saturated blue eyeshadow to match. Next to her is a woman probably about 5 years younger, sporting white off-the-shoulder crop top that reveals a chest and shoulders full of black and red ink tattoos, a blunt black bob with short fringe that is topped off by a red beret with a leather rim. Gigi is stunned by how poised and beautiful these two strange women staring at her looked. It is as if Gigi were being sized up by an old Hollywood movie star and the most popular girl in high school. Gigi stares at the two women a little longer and is surprised to see them coming down the concrete stairs and to the locked store door. Gigi has no idea what to do and is relieved when Crystal comes out of the office with two mugs of black tea with lemon in her hands. Crystal looks at Gigi’s confused facial expression and then turns to the door to see Brita and Dahlia standing at the door, smirking.</p><p>Crystal rolls her eyes and tries to swallow her fear of any embarrassment the two cousins and store owners were about to inflict on Crystal in the presence of Gigi. Crystal hands Gigi’s mug of tea to her and approaches the door to see what they want.</p><p>“Ladies, may I help you? We’re closed,” Crystal says, trying to put on a confident front but still very worried about what Brita and Dahlia are up to. They’re always up to something, much like Jackie.</p><p>“We’re having some issues with our music system, hon. Customers won’t get the same experience without it. You two mind coming over and fixing it?” Dahlia asks, head nodding in Gigi’s direction to include Gigi in the situation. Unbeknownst to Crystal and Gigi, Jan’s cousin who took the girls’ pizza order told Jan who texted Jaida who called Jackie who relayed the message to Brita and Dahlia that Gigi and Crystal would be together tonight planning at Methyd Records. Jackie, who put Brita and Dahlia on speed dial in her ancient and unusual relic of the distant past, her flip phone, called the cousins right away to tell them tonight is the night to implement Brita’s idea of a cute lesbian fashion show in order to get them to do something fun and totally unrelated to their Festival work. Dahlia is outright lying but this had to happen in order to initiate phase 2 of the plan.</p><p>“Gigi and I are planning for the Festival, can I come in tomorrow morning bright and early” Crystal asks, not wanting to make Gigi do anything she didn’t sign up for.</p><p>“It’s GOTTA happen now, Crys. Plus I have a new shipment of denim shirts from 1982-1985. C’mon! BOTH OF YOU!” Brita says loudly, intending it to be a friendly push, but really it came out as an order. Brita did not want to miss this opportunity so as not-smooth as her demand is, the girls come anyway. Crystal can’t say no to her two aunties and also can’t deny her love for denim shirts.</p><p>“I can fix the system for them quickly and it’s a win for you as well because Brita and Dahlia here are great people to cover for the Festival. They don’t just sell vintage clothes, they also design them using recycled clothing. They’ll have a stand at the arts market so they’re definitely two people you want to know,” Crystal explains, making sure Gigi feels comfortable meeting her strange neighborhood aunties and going to their store.  </p><p>“That’s cool with me! As long as you don’t electrocute yourself again,” Gigi says. Crystal acts jokingly offended while Brita and Dahlia laugh at Gigi’s joke, indicating that Jackie really has told everyone about their first interaction.</p><p>The girls follow Dahlia and Brita You Brita Work, just about a five second walk away from the steps in front of Methyd Records. Gigi walks in after Crystal and is immediately bombarded by every fabric and every color known to humankind and the very same warm cinnamon-like scent that all of Crystal’s clothes that Gigi has seen her in, have.</p><p>Not a single rack in the store is organized in any visible way that would make sense to Gigi, but it is, much like Methyd Records, heaven for the girl. It reminds her of all the costumes and outfits her mom and her would make together when she was living at home in LA.</p><p>Gigi follows Dahlia over to a haphazard rack of clothes that all appear to be from the 1960s. The raven-haired tattooed beauty presents Gigi with so many mini-skirts and mod dresses, that Gigi feels as though she may faint. Everything from dresses that could be seen on Twiggy when she was at the Factory, to pastel-colored Ralph Lauren tennis dresses, to the floral dresses made for fabulous women who went shopping mid-day and came out of the department store with dozens of hat and shoe boxes hanging on their wrists. Gigi is surprised her eyes weren’t cartoonishly bulging out of her sockets in the shape of hearts.</p><p>Crystal chuckles at Gigi’s reactions to the clothes Dahlia is showing her as she follows Brita to the back of the store where they keep the music system, which includes a radio, turntable provided by Methyd Records, and a player able to play both 8-track and cassette tapes. Honestly, Brita had not thought too hard about this plan other than the fashion show, so she had to come up with something quick for Crystal to fix so it doesn’t look like part of an elaborate plan for Gigi and Crystal to spend more time together. While Crystal’s back is turned to Brita while she inspects the 8-track player, the glamorous store-owner unplugs a bunch of random cords and presses a bunch of buttons on the control panel controls all of the music players when they are synched up to the store’s speaker system. After more or less bashing the buttons in, the machinery makes a strange whirring noise and a series of loud clicks. Crystal whips around to see what is going on and finds Brita standing in front of her with her hands behind her back, trying to look innocent.</p><p>“That noise. That’s the problem, I think. It’s been happening <em>a lot </em>lately,” Brita says, bashfully, still trying to act natural. Crystal barely buys it, but still goes about fixing the system anyway. <em>“If this is another set-up I swear to god…what is with all the aunties in town wanting me to fix stuff?” </em>Crystal thinks as she stoops to the level of the control panel.</p><p>After fifteen minutes of getting the music system back in shape, Crystal walks out of the back room and sees Dahlia about to take Gigi behind the red curtain that hides City of Sin. Not wanting Dahlia to shove her custom-made dildos in Gigi’s face just yet, Crystal suggests Gigi try some clothes on and get a feel for the kind of things Brita sells, while Crystal checks out the denim shirts Brita got in. Gigi nods and Dahlia looks disappointed she couldn’t show off her new collection of bondage accessories. At this point, Brita nods to Dahlia to signal the start of the main part of their plan. To get Crystal and Gigi to try on some fun outfits while listening to Cyndi Lauper and Tiffany and subsequently fall madly in love with each other.</p><p>Dahlia nods and pushes Gigi into a dressing cubicle attached with a crushed velvet purple curtain. Gigi stands in the cubicle as Dahlia hands her a pile of dresses from the 1960s that she noticed caught Gigi’s interest and a bunch of shoes to go with them. Gigi begins to try on the dresses while Crystal sifts through the box of denim shirts Brita places on the check-out counter. Dahlia looks at Brita with a “what are you doing, Crystal needs to be part of the fashion show too” look. Brita perks up immediately and says, “HEY! Crys. My darling neighborhood lesbian icon. Take some of these shirts and go try them on, I wanna see how they look. Dahlia will also give you some other items to try on that I’ve been dying to see you in,” Brita says in a such a strange and panicky way, that Crystal picks up on it.</p><p>“What are you two up to?” Crystal asks, with a low voice so only Brita can hear her.</p><p>“WHAT?! NOTHING! Now go try on clothes!” Brita says with exasperation, pushing Crystal towards the dressing cubicle right next to Gigi’s. Crystal is not sure how to feel being so close to Gigi who is also trying on clothes. Just as Crystal reaches for the buttons on her current denim shirt in order to try on a different one; one with some fringe and embroidered pockets, she hears the store’s speaker system whir a little bit. Then, it starts playing Tiffany’s <em>I Think We’re Alone Now. </em>From her cubical, Crystal can hear Gigi gasp.</p><p>“Crystal! I love this song!” Gigi says, trying to talk over the song’s recognizable and infectiously catchy intro. Crystal smiles at Gigi’s response, making a mental note that Gigi loves music from the 70s and 80s, especially.</p><p>As Crystal fully unbuttons her shirt and slips on the other one, fastening its thick pearl buttons and tucking one side of it into her jeans for a slightly slouchy, but totally Crystal look, Crystal says, “my mom and dad would always argue about what version of this song they liked best. My dad was into the original and my mom loved Tiffany’s version…” Crystal says, feeling unusually at ease talking about her parents to Gigi, but still feeling that same sadness she always feels. Whether or not Crystal’s grief would takeover, was something she’d have to see, but for now it felt like a natural and safe place to reminisce about her parents loving the song.</p><p>Gigi, putting on a red and orange floral dress from 1964 and trying to zip it up herself, sighs and takes in every nuance of Crystal’s voice. The music is quite loud, but Crystal’s voice is still incredibly clear to Gigi. She briefly notices that twinge of sadness in Crystal’s more often than not animated voice. Gigi doesn’t press on the subject of her parents, but instead, leans outside of the purple curtain to see if Crystal is ready to model her shirt. Crystal agrees, and at the count of 3, the two girls step out of their cubicles, dramatically pushing their respective curtains out of the way to reveal their vintage looks. Gigi finds it hard to not drool at the sight of Crystal in a worn, fringe denim button-down with the sleeves rolled up revealing the tattoos that Gigi does not think she will get tired of seeing. <em>“Lord help me,” </em>Gigi thinks.</p><p>Crystal, in return, is similarly in awe of Gigi and how radiant she looks in red and orange and how the shape of the skirt makes Gigi look almost like a ballerina. <em>“She’s fucking cool but also elegant?! How?” </em>Crystal thinks.</p><p>“That might be the greatest shirt I’ve ever seen,” Gigi says.</p><p>“Well, your dress is amazing. You should definitely get it,” Crystal replies. Both girls are tiptoeing around telling how hot the other looks and safely going for compliments about the clothes themselves.</p><p>The girls try on some more clothes, modeling them for each other and letting the beat of the music dictate their poses. The fashion show was getting sillier and sillier the later it got and Crystal felt like she was in grade school again, a time when she could dedicate large chunks of her day to being stupid with her friends and wasting time trying on clothes. Up to this point, Gigi has not seen Crystal really let her hair down and relax. It turns out, when she does let loose and is really enjoying herself, Crystal is much weirder than Gigi ever expected her to be and Gigi can’t get enough.</p><p>Brita and Dahlia observe the two girls from afar, playing every song someone would expect to hear at a prom in the 80s. Gigi and Crystal know every word to every son. As the two aunties see their plan unfold before their eyes, Dahlia gets an idea. After whispering her idea to Brita, the two women go searching in the aisles of clothing. Dahlia grabs one garment back housing one outfit for Crystal, while Brita sources another garment back encasing what she wants Gigi to try on. The bags are black and opaque, so the outfits they’re giving to Crystal and Gigi for their final round of the fashion show are a mystery to the two girls. Dahlia encourages them to try on these last outfits, ones that Brita and Dahlia designed themselves by putting together great fabrics they already had in-store. Dahlia and Brita wait with breathless anticipation as the girls draw their purple curtains and disappear behind them. Brita nearly squeals with excitement when both Gigi and Crystal unzip the garment bags simultaneously, revealing what the two store-owners picked out for them. Following the unzipping, there is also a collective expression of confusion.</p><p>“Dahlia? Brita? What is this?” Crystal asks. Gigi chimes in, “Yeah, this is a lot of fabric for me. I’m not sure if this is my look…”</p><p>“Ladies. Try them on. We’ve been waiting to see them on actual people and you two are perfect. I promise this is the last outfit, then you can go home,” Dahlia says while Brita chuckles.</p><p>A few minutes go by and Gigi announces cautiously that she’s ready to reveal her outfit. Crystal agrees that she is as ready as she will ever be. Brita excitedly rushes to the back to change the song in anticipation for the big reveal. <em>Only You </em>by Yaz begins to play and Dahlia goes to the cubicles to unveil Crystal and Gigi.</p><p>Crystal steps out in a pastel periwinkle suit that has been hand-stoned. On the lapel is a giant pink flower and underneath the fitted blazer, Crystal is wearing the frilliest white shirt she has ever put on her body. It is so frilly, that the large, flared-out lace sleeves go beyond the sleeves of the blazer, making Crystal feel like a pirate going to the prom. The pants are quite tight on her legs and Dahlia has taken the liberty of accessorizing the outfit with lots of Crystal-esque jewelry -  metallic heels that reflected all the colors of the rainbow, layered chunky necklaces, large square-cut earrings, and a multi-colored ascot. Crystal feels deeply silly and is worried how stupid she’s going to look in front of Gigi. All of these fears go out the window, however, when Gigi steps out right as the instrumental break in <em>Only You </em>begins. She is in an extremely fitted, blue satin dress-tuxedo hybrid, equipped with a cape protruding from her hips, a cummerbund that cinches her already miniscule waist, an homage to the ruffled tuxedo shirts of decades past, and a sparkly pink bowtie. Gigi looks like a literal tall drink of water and Crystal can’t help but say, “wow” out loud.</p><p>“This has to be on purpose, right? No two people just accidentally put on nearly-matching prom outfits,” Gigi says.</p><p>“Most likely. Brita and Dahlia are always up to something, but they’re like family so…” Crystal says, Gigi nods and feels the way she did when Jan told her she was one of them. <em>“Part of a family. A community. This is what I want,” </em>Gigi thinks happily.</p><p>Crystal is trying to stand confidently in Gigi’s presence without fidgeting or looking unconfident. Crystal’s penchant for fidgeting as a mechanism for dealing with discomfort or anxiety at varying levels manifest itself in Crystal playing with the ascot around her neck. Gigi, noticing this immediately, walks confidently towards Crystal in her sparkly pink shoes Brita decorated to match Gigi’s bowtie and stops right in front of the curly-haired girl. “Can I fix your ascot for you and will you go to the prom with me?”</p><p>Gigi asks, before reaching for the knot of Crystal’s ascot so she can retie it in a neater way. Crystal laughs breathily, increasingly aware of her lips are closer to Gigi’s than they have been thus far. Gigi is fully concentrating on Crystal’s ascot, when Crystal responds, “Sure! I’d love to go to prom with you.” The girls laugh and comment on each other’s outfits. As silly as it is to be wearing prom attire on a Thursday night when you’re well into your 20s and not going to a costume party or any show of any kind, Crystal and Gigi both feel incredibly beautiful and gush over the construction of their outfits. Dahlia and Brita could not be happier receiving compliments like that and also are ecstatic that Brita’s idea actually worked. The lesbian fashion show is something no couple destined to fall in love could resist.</p><p>After Brita takes multiple Polaroids of them in their outfits, Gigi and Crystal decide its time to go. Brita and Dahlia bid the two girls goodnight and insist that they take the prom outfits along with some other pieces for free. Gigi tries to refuse, but Brita insists that they take the clothes in exchange for Gigi giving their business lots of publicity during the Halloween Festival. Gigi shakes Dahlia’s hand, giving them her word to follow up with them soon to figure out how best to highlight their business and drum up customers for their arts market stand. The girls exit the store, and back to Methyd records so Gigi can get her belongings she left there.</p><p>As the door to You Brita Work closes, Dahlia turns to Brita and says, “Despite your loud mouth, your plan really fucking worked.” Brita smirks and laughs from her belly in response. “BITCH, when have my plans ever not worked?” Brita asks. Dahlia proceeds to list off a host of instances where Brita’s plans have failed, going back to their childhood. Brita rolls her eyes at Dahlia, not thinking about anything else but the idea that if Gigi and Crystal get married as the prophecy foretells, they will have to give her all the credit and vows she will fight Jackie if she claims to be the reason the two are together.</p><p>___</p><p>Gigi and Crystal barely make it out the door of the vintage store before Gigi’s leg is clipped by a reckless person riding a bike. When all the juice-obsessed people moved into town, the population of bikes skyrocketed and very few of the riders were actually good maneuverers. “Oh my god! Gigi! Are you alright?!” Crystal asks, kneeling by Gigi who has to sit down as the large gash the bike made from her knee down to her shin hits the cold night air and begins to throb and sting. Gigi doesn’t answer as she is too busy wincing and trying to hold back tears from the pain she is feeling. Crystal notices she is bleeding quite a bit and wants to bring her into Methyd Records to help her out, but remembers there are no more band-aids left in the kit sitting in the back office. This lack of band-aids is most likely due to Crystal’s clumsiness and/or Heidi hoarding of things like gauze and antiseptic for what she believes is the inevitable apocalypse – with or without zombies. When Gigi can finally manage to speak and tells Crystal where her apartment is located, Crystal realizes that the closest place to take her to that will actually have proper supplies is her apartment.</p><p>Gigi is visibly limping so Crystal offers to carry her on her back. Gigi reluctantly hops onto Crystal’s back, keeping her legs straight but wrapping her arms around Crystal’s neck and inadvertently resting her chin on the space between Crystal’s stretched-out neck and the dip in her shoulder. Gigi can feel the softness of Crystal’s well-loved denim shirt as well as the collection of patches covering her vest she is wearing on top. Gigi takes in the scent of Crystal’s lemon shampoo and is comforted by the warm scent of her clothing. They talk quietly about nothing in particular. Crystal is focused on getting Gigi to the apartment.</p><p>“You’re not losing too much blood are you?” Crystal asks, half-joking but also half-not joking.</p><p>“Crystal, it’s okay. I’m not losing blood. Although, I do think I got blood on your jeans,” Gigi says, embarrassed for ruining Crystal’s outfit.</p><p>“Don’t even sweat it. We’re almost to mine. I’ll get you patched up,” Crystal responds, not one bit worried about anything else but Gigi.</p><p>The girls arrive at the apartment and Crystal allows Gigi to deplane from her back safely. As Gigi enters Crystal’s apartment, she is taken aback by how lived-in and love-filled the place feels. It didn’t just feel like an apartment. It feels like a true home, with mismatched blankets, a combination of old and new furniture, somewhat ugly yet charming kitchen curtains, stacks of books, colorful wallpapers, child-like drawings hanging on the fridge with magnets that contain pictures of young children smiling while holding awards and baseball bats. <em>“This must be her family’s place, unless she cultivated all this stuff herself. It’s so…lovely,” </em>Gigi thinks, looking around the kitchen-area and in particular, the hand-painted chair Jaida was sitting in just days before.</p><p>“This place is so colorful. I love it…” Gigi says, turning to see Crystal rifling around in the kitchen to find the first aid kit. Gigi sighs as she sits at the dining table, wincing once more as she adjusts her leg in front of her so Crystal can patch it up. Crystal, having found the kit, is about to kneel down to take care of Gigi’s injury, but then stops for a moment and pops up to her full height. Gigi watches Crystal with confusion and amusement as she goes to the living room and puts the White Stripes album, <em>White Blood Cells</em> on. Side B. Track 1. The familiar and friendly sound of the intro to <em>We’re Going to Be Friends </em>starts to play. Crystal returns to Gigi and kneels down, disinfecting her wound first, apologizing for the sting and then proceeding to clean and bandage it up, reinforcing the dressing with a little bit of clear medical tape. Between the nostalgic song and Crystal’s careful touch, Gigi feels as though she might burst.</p><p>Crystal makes Gigi some nighttime decafinated tea and sits down a few seats away from her at the dining table. They converse for another twenty minutes, when Gigi says she should head home. Crystal can’t deny she’s disappointed the night was ending, but she understood that Gigi’s day started early and she should get at least some sleep. Crystal offers to call her a rideshare, despite Gigi not living that far away. Crystal insists because it is so late and she doesn’t want Gigi to have to walk anyway. Crystal also explains that there was a high probability that the person that will pick her up is someone Crystal knows personally. She’s right. Gigi’s driver is one of Jan’s other cousins who doubles up on ridesharing and delivering pizzas to people around the neighborhood. Gigi thanks Crystal for helping her get a ride.</p><p>When Gigi’s ride is just a few minutes away from arriving at Crystal’s apartment, Crystal remembers something. She heads to her room, calling Gigi with her. Normally, Crystal would worry about this being too forward (not that she had any ideas about <em>that</em>), but Crystal really wants to give something to Gigi. Crystal shuffles around in her stuff while Gigi stands within Crystal’s citrusy explosion of a bedroom, close to the door out of politeness. As Crystal gets close to finding what she is looking for, Gigi spots a bunch of canvases leaning against a wall in the corner of the room by Crystal’s nightstand. They're dusty and clearly haven't been touched or looked at in a long time. Gigi walks over to the canvases while Crystal’s back is turned to her and leans them away from the wall in order to see them.</p><p>The canvases, all different sizes, contain some of the most interesting and captivating abstract art Gigi has ever seen. Watercolors and acrylics. The paintings are rife with different painting techniques and textures and in particular, make such a fascinating use of negative space. Crystal finally turns around with an album in her hands intending to give it to Gigi as a parting gift and sees Gigi looking at her old paintings. Crystal probably would have been cross or weirded out by someone looking at her art from her last year of art school if it were anyone else looking at them.</p><p>“Oh. That’s some of my stuff from my senior show. The one Rock talked about. Definitely not legendary like she said, but I like some of those a lot,” Crystal says, looking down at her feet. The feeling of being stuck is creeping up on Crystal again. </p><p>“Crystal, do you paint like this all the time? It’s really so amazing,” Gigi says, looking at Crystal directly to make sure she fully takes in the praise Gigi is giving her.</p><p>“Um…yeah…no. I haven’t painted in years. There’s no time, really,” Crystal explains, feeling slightly uncomfortable, her mind racing. <em>“Should I tell Gigi why I don’t paint? Then would I have to tell her about my parents? About my family? About my grief? About my anxiety? About all of it?!” </em></p><p>“You HAVE to set up your own stand at the arts market, Crystal,” Gigi says, snapping Crystal out of her thoughts for a moment.</p><p>“What?” Crystal asks, looking up at Gigi, shocked. Gigi looks at Crystal who is holding another original pressing of ABBA singing in Swedish. Crystal’s eyes are wide and although she is not saying anything and Gigi knows very little about Crystal or her background, Gigi knows there’s something big and emotional and weighty attached to her reaction right now. <em>“There’s a reason Crystal doesn’t paint anymore. Beyond being too busy, I can feel it,” </em>Gigi thinks.</p><p>“Even if you don’t paint anymore, you should sell your work, or at least show the world these paintings. You are amazing,” Gigi repeats, adding to her sentiment. After telling Crystal she is amazing, Gigi bounds over to Crystal and wraps her in a tight hug, swinging her arms over Crystal’s neck and shoulders and bringing Crystal’s body to her own. Crystal has never in her life felt more exhilarated by such a simple action while also feeling so taken care of. This feeling is far beyond a feeling of friendship. Gigi thinks that she is amazing.</p><p>“Gigi…” Crystal says, beginning to object to Gigi's statement about her art and her amazingness. Crystal keeps her hands at her sides, not knowing what to do with her limbs during this unexpected show of affection.</p><p>“Don’t argue with me. We’re including you on the roster of artists and performers,” Gigi says, rubbing circles on Crystal’s back as if to say it is okay if Crystal relaxed a bit and participated in the hug. Crystal nods against Gigi's shoulder, not wanting to argue with Gigi in this moment. Crystal is very unsure about participating in the arts market considering how long it has been since she's made any art at all, but Gigi's confidence sways Crystal a bit. </p><p>“And thank you Crystal. Thank you for taking care of me,” Gigi adds in a whisper, directly into Crystal’s ear. Gigi tightens their hug and Crystal finds her arms looping around Gigi’s waist. <em>"I am hugging...Crystal Methyd. And she's hugging me back. Good lord, Gigi Goode, you are breaking all your rules..." </em></p><p>There is no awkwardness in the hug. It is natural and comforting. Natural and comforting and definitely<em> something else. </em> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Omg. So many things. The strange man! Brita! Dahlia! Lesbian prom fashion! Lots of music! An incident with a bike!!! A HUG OMG?! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I would love to know what you think may happen next!! </p><p>A hint: we meet a new character, there are some reveals, and we get more of Crystal's friend group!!! &lt;3 Sending lots of love to you all!!</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Hello! An Announcement From Your Author <3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>An announcement for all my beautiful readers. So sorry for the delay, your humble author just moved!! &lt;3</p>
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    <p>Hello my beautiful readers! I hope you all are well! I am sorry that this is not a chapter, but I wanted to post an announcement that I will be back on track to write in a couple of days! I just moved cross-country to California for work and my life has been very hectic - especially making sure everything is as safe as it can be during this Pandemic. Although it has been longer than usual since I've updated, I promise I am continuing this story for many many many more chapters because I just love it so much and writing it makes me deliriously happy!! I apologize for the delay and hope you are all excited for what's to come! Chapter 9 and 10 really get into it and I can't wait &lt;3 </p><p>As a treat and a huge thank you, I'm going to give some vague hints for the next few chapters!! I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you don't have any, tell me, how are you doing? How are you feeling? Let's chat &lt;3 </p><p>Chapter 9 hints: we meet a new character, we find more about Gigi, and Crystal and Gigi set a special meeting unrelated to Halloween planning </p><p>Chapter 10 hints: Crystal has a sad day, Gigi runs an errand and learns some new things, and Jan and Rock argue over a movie </p><p>Chapter 11 hints: Halloween has arrived, Jan spills some beans, and someone unexpected arrives </p><p>Chapter 12 hints: flashbacks galore!! </p><p>Chapter 13: Rock paints and embarrasses Crystal some more </p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Crys. Please.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“You could have called, idiot! I thought for a second there I was a goner!” Crystal exclaims...</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My beautiful readers! I am finally back and am so sorry once again for the wait. Sometimes, life can be so rough or busy or stressful and there isn't as much room for creativity. I gotta say, your comments and encouragement have gotten me through and I am SO excited to feel like myself and to get back to writing. I love you all so so much! Please let me know how you're doing and as always, I am sending lots of love your way. &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Don’t argue with me. We’re setting you up for a stand,” Gigi says, rubbing circles on Crystal’s back as if to say it is okay if Crystal relaxed a bit and participated in the hug. Crystal nods, not wanting to argue with Gigi in this moment. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“And thank you Crystal. Thank you for taking care of me,” Gigi adds in a whisper, directly into Crystal’s ear. Gigi tightens their hug and Crystal finds her arms looping around Gigi’s waist. Gigi is quite bony and gangly, but there is no awkwardness in the hug between them. It is natural and comforting. Comforting and definitely something else.  </em>
</p><p>Gigi breaks the embrace and Crystal feels like she is glowing from the inside out. This was intentional contact – not contact because one of them was spooked by spiders or helping the other because of an injury. This was a conscious move that Gigi made. Gigi whispers to Crystal that she has to go, as if someone was sleeping in the next room and she had to whisper to not wake the person up. Gigi’s whisper has a tinge of sadness in it, which causes Crystal to squeeze Gigi’s hand as her arm is falling back to her side. Although handholding is innocent, and not particularly bold considering Gigi’s level of affection, Crystal feels emboldened by this series of intimate moments from the piggyback to dressing Gigi’s injury to the hug, to make a move that she has not previously made. Crystal’s gesture surprises both girls and causes them both to blush, a reaction now commonplace for the two of them.</p><p>Crystal reluctantly walks Gigi downstairs to make sure she gets in the car with Jan’s cousin safely. Gigi appears to be walking a bit better now that she isn’t profusely bleeding and is properly bandaged. Crystal can’t see much of the younger girl’s face due to the car’s tinted windows, but still waves to Gigi as the car drives away. Gigi sees the wave and Crystal squinting adorably as she tries to see Gigi’s face through the darkened window. In return, Gigi blows Crystal a kiss, an invisible kiss that Crystal wouldn’t be able to catch. Gigi makes a mental note to find an opportunity to send one her way that she would be able to.</p><p>Crystal stands outside a little bit longer and then returns to what she thinks is a completely empty apartment. Crystal walks into the dim kitchen to make some more tea and then enters the living room area so she could sit down on the couch and wait around for a text from Gigi that she arrived home safely. <em>“Way to play it cool,” </em>Crystal thinks as she goes over to the couch, already having unlocked her phone multiple times to check her messages.</p><p>Just then, a voice rings out, an unexpected but completely familiar voice that initially makes Crystal jump out of her skin. “You didn’t tell me you had a <em>girlfriend</em>!” the voice says, in playful surprise. A huge smile spreads across her face when her initial panic that an intruder was there to murder her subsides. Crystal scurries over to the large floor lamp next to the antique living room armchair her father picked up from some market before Crystal was even born, and switches it on, revealing a curly-haired olive-skinned teenage boy who if he had the same retro hair-style as Crystal, would be a carbon copy of her.</p><p>“You could have called, idiot! I thought for a second there I was a goner!” Crystal exclaims, wrapping her arms around her little brother.</p><p>“Dude the only person who’d murder you is Aiden, so don’t worry. I thought about calling but I wanted my prolonged stay to start off with a surprise! I didn’t know exactly what day this weekend I’d come settle in, but I figured, why not come, work in the store a few days, and eat my weight in pizza with my weird older sister,” he laughs as he returns Crystal’s embrace. Crystal’s brother is technically taller than her by a few inches, but Crystal’s heels were the equalizer.</p><p>“I’m so happy you’re here. When you called me, I couldn’t believe you had this break! We haven’t been together around this time in 2 years…” Crystal trails off, another wave of grief crashing over her in this moment.</p><p>“I know…I’m sorry, Crys. There’s no excuse to not come home for the 17<sup>th</sup>…” her little brother says in response, also trailing off, with a concerned look on his face.</p><p>“You’re so busy and you should be a kid, bud. You don’t have that much time before college so I’m glad you’re so into your stuff. The anniversary of their passing isn’t exactly part of the quintessential high school experience,” Crystal reassures him, not wanting him to feel bad for living his life, for doing the thing that Crystal couldn’t do. She wants nothing more for her little brother than for him to have a normal life.</p><p>“I’m not a kid anymore, Crys. Around this time and in next year, I’m gonna do you proud at college,” he says, flipping his curls out of his eyes and putting his hands on his hips as if he were a superhero.</p><p>“You always do,” Crystal smiles with sadness behind it, both for her parents’ death anniversary coming up in just a few days and for the fact that her little brother was going to college so soon. Yes, he accepted admission at the closest possible college, but his schedule is already so busy, so Crystal will see even less of him. Crystal also is sad for another reason altogether. The fact that her little brother was going out of his way to stay close to home for college, even though his friends were all looking to go to colleges in New York City. About a year ago, when he first was thinking about college, he vowed to Crystal that he’d stay close by so he could take care of her and the store. While she was happy that he’d be close, she couldn’t help but think about how he was putting it on himself to sacrifice the very same thing Crystal sacrificed 3 years ago; the big city adventure for family and a life at home. Crystal has so many mixed emotions about her little brother, but after processing her feelings about it, this feeling that he’d be losing out on something amazing because of this obligation he’s created for himself, more than the seeing him less part of it, more than the loneliness or the bill paying or anything, is the strongest and the heaviest.</p><p>Crystal is exhausted, but she doesn’t want to miss a moment with her little brother, so she starts making some of his favorite snacks and prepares to stay up even later to catch up.</p><p>“So…tell me about the girlfriend,” Crystal’s little brother says, as his older sister sits down with a huge bowl of spicy and sweet gummies and two piping mugs of sweet milk tea. Crystal rolls her eyes as she starts talking about Gigi, not being able to contain her excitement, feeling comfortable talking about her first crush in a long time with the first person she ever came out to. The two sit up and talk until the sun starts to peek out behind the layer of clouds blanketing the early morning September sky. Crystal finds herself furiously blushing while she and her little brother scarf down breakfast and copious amounts of high-caffeine tea while listening to “Roll Call!” Crystal’s little brother laughs mercilessly at his lovesick older sister and laughed even harder at her denial.</p><p>_________</p><p>The better part of the next day was seamless. Crystal and her little brother, as if no time had passed since they were working at the store alongside their parents, made an extremely good team. On this very busy Friday, Crystal talks to the customers and lends them her unmatched knowledge of the record store’s contents, and her little brother runs the register like he had been born behind the counter, welcoming everyone in and making sure good tunes were always playing. Around 6 pm on Friday, a newly-healed Gigi comes by the store to meet Crystal. The two girls are scheduled to go for a cup of tea and to discuss their plans to create some basic advertisements to put around the neighborhood so new artists and performers and craftspeople could sign up for a place in the art market. Crystal asked her little brother to  Crystal was reluctant at first to introduce her two worlds, but during these couple of weeks he would be home, it was only a matter of time before the two actually met. Plus he heard a ton about Gigi last night. Crystal agreed to his terms only if her little brother kept it cool.</p><p>He does not.</p><p>“You must be Gigi Goode! Crystal was right you <em>are </em>a goddess walking among us!” Crystal’s little brother says as he greets a taken aback, blue, green, and yellow plaid-clad Gigi. “A queen. A radio star. An icon, according to Crystal,” he adds. It should be noted that not once did Crystal say any of this, but Crystal’s little brother, much like Crystal’s friends, will always go out of his way to embarrass her because it’s fun.</p><p>“Gigi, this is my younger sibling. I’m sorry,” Crystal apologizes immediately out of embarrassment before her little brother can say anything else. Gigi is so surprised to be meeting Crystal’s little brother, that she does not register the onslaught of blush-inducing compliments that came from Crystal according to her brother. So far, Crystal has only really talked about her mom briefly and if she had mentioned a little brother, Gigi could for the life of her not remember. Looking at the similarities between the two siblings in front of her makes Gigi smile. While Crystal’s little brother is dressed in a slightly more neutral palette, it is clear that the Methyd family basically invented the patterned button down and over-accessorizing. He is clad in a navy button down covered in fish, coral, and other sea creatures. On both of his wrists are holographic bracelets similar to the ones you can collect at theme parks with the snaps. Gigi remembers not too long ago collecting those herself. On his feet are a rusty red pair of patent leather docs and the white socks slightly peeking out of the top of them are covered in sketchy outlines of hemp leaves. <em>“I thought there definitely should be more Crystal Methyd-types in the world, I’m so glad there actually is one,” </em>Gigi thinks as she shakes his hand.</p><p>“So nice to meet you! Are you gonna help us plan for the Halloween…” Gigi begins asking some friendly questions to get to know Crystal’s lovable and snarky surprise sibling. She trails off , however when she hears the door of Methyd Records open and the sharp sound of expensive loafers hitting the floor of the record store. Gigi turns around slightly, as do Crystal and her little brother to see the tall, white walker of a man that came into the store before. This time, his silvery-white hair is tied in a small bun near the top of his head, with a few almost translucent wisps hanging down over his forehead. Gigi’s blood goes cold upon seeing this man and it is as if she is transported back to her days trying to make it in Los Angeles.</p><p>
  <em>“Hey, Gigi. Ru wants to see you and Grant in her office right now,” the wiry and ever-fashionable Rosy Thorn, looking like a freshly-styled Mia Thermopolis, whispers to Gigi quietly as to not make any scene. Gigi looks at Rosy with a confused look on her face, wondering why Ru, the glamorous but tough manager of the premier hair and makeup boutique in Beverly Hills, wanted to see her and her friend Grant, two of the most talented cosmetology artists in the salon’s training program.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gigi nervously lays her scissors on the counter next to her styling products, and assures her favorite client Marko, that she’d be back to style his newly-dyed hair. Normally, students in the training program didn’t get regular clients, as they did not yet have their official licenses, however, Gigi was by far the most creative and skilled would-be graduate and Ru considered her skills far too valuable to waste on fake hair attached to mannequins. Marko nodded his head as Rosy asked him if he’d like a magazine and some sort of fancy tea while he waited for Gigi to return. Gigi feels as though she cannot swallow. She walks over to the bright pink door, running into her fabulous, yet currently nervous-looking training partner, Grant Vanderbilt, her honey-colored hair stacked high on her head, perfectly matching her immaculately trimmed beard. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Grant, do you think this is about…” Gigi begins, tentatively and extremely quietly. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Hm…Gigi…I wonder,” Grant says sarcastically. Gigi tries to swallow again, to no avail and waits until Ru calls them into her office. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ladies?” Ru says, her usually calming voice, coming off as tense. Grant and Gigi walk into Ru’s office, carefully and feeling small. Pink exposed brick and various loudly patterned wallpapers adorned the four walls of the office. Everything on the desk looked as though it was made of solid gold, as was the legendary Ru herself. Although she didn’t own the salon herself, she was the legendary face of it and has been the go-to celebrity hair dresser and makeup artist since the late 80s, although she would never admit to that. Ru’s platinum blonde hair was large and immaculate and her stunningly clear skin looked like it was glowing against the neon green wrap dress she was sporting. Gigi may have good legs, but no one could beat the gams on the statuesque Ru, whose stilettos made her and her legs look even taller and longer. As a kid growing up in LA, hoping to get into fashion or makeup and hair, Gigi idolized Ru and had to apply to the training program at the salon, in hopes of following in Ru’s footsteps. The more Gigi thinks about how much she loves Ru and the program and doing makeup and hair, the sweatier she becomes. She can’t believe that this is the moment it could all come to an end. </em>
</p><p><em>“Ladies. I’m sorry to say, I’ve been asked to bring you in for a chat about your positions in the program,” Ru begins. Usually, Ru was incredibly jovial, quick-witted, and although she’d never admit to being at an age of a matriarch, Ru also served as a motherly figure to all the kids in her program. She was tough when she needed to be, but always led with love and humor. This was different, however. There wasn’t any joy in Ru at this moment. Ru’s initially tense tone had turned to genuine sadness. </em> </p><p>
  <em>“It’s come to the attention of the CEO and the board that you have been engaging in behavior unbecoming of those who they want representing the salon’s brand…” Ru says, as if she were judging a gameshow or a reality show, and trying to encourage those who were about to be sent home. Ru is trying to keep it as professional as possible without her emotions getting in the way. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ru…can you just talk to us normally? Please? I mean, it’s us, we’re not just random employees…” Grant pleads, hating that their actions have put Ru in this position. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Grant, honey, I know. I’m sorry,  it’s just that my hands are tied. They’ve asked me go over the report they’ve filed regarding your actions and then let you know what the next steps are. But first, off the record, I wanted to hear from you first. Do you know why you’ve been called in?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gigi and Grant stare up at Ru, her sparkling gold eye makeup accenting her somewhat watery eyes. Throughout the workday, Ru would often wear elaborate pairs of sunglasses or elaborate hats so there was something of a fabulous barrier between her true emotions and the world she presented her iconic persona to. Here, Ru had no barrier and was clearly taking this conversation seriously. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Could it be that we literally went to a protest against the salon’s management company and got on the news directly calling out the CEO for buying up buildings that house LA’s most beloved queer spaces, pricing them out, and turning them into a chain of these salons maybe?” Grant spills, and quite quickly, without any urging from Ru. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"</em>
  <em>Or how about because we then put in an anonymous tip, one that clearly could be traced back to us, to the local business administration, letting them know that the CEO ordered upper management to use sketchy product producing methods to cut costs and covered it up, not even letting Ru herself know about it?!” Grant says, almost hysterical. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yes. Exactly. That's why you’re here. As a manager of this business and the face of this brand, I can’t condone bad mouthing the parent company, the CEO, or the management team, especially so publicly," Ru begins, stretching out her long arms to take her students’ hands in hers. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But as your friend and mentor? I know why you did what you did. And I am proud of you. If it weren’t for my contract with the company and the fact that I’m saving up for my own salon that I’ll be buying any minute now and can’t risk anything to jeopardize that at the moment, I’d be right there with you, on the local news, raising awareness and calling out the bullshit. This salon wasn’t always a corporate machine run by a raging homophobic gentrifier. It used to mean something and be something to the queer community in LA. Back in yes, the 80s, mother Ru is not as young as she looks, this was a gathering place for all walks of life to become their most beautified selves, not just the rich people who can afford it. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gigi, feeling awful that Grant was her accomplice in this, has tears in her eyes and turns to Grant. “Grant, I know you’re upset. I am too. I’m sorry. I know this is our dream and something we’ve been working towards for a long time,” Gigi wants to continue to apologize to Grant, but is cut off when Grant takes her hand. Grant and Gigi were more like professional colleagues than actual best friends – Gigi always found it difficult to make genuine friends in such a competitive and ambitious place, however, this gesture shows Gigi that this shared experience, has bonded them more than Gigi thought was possible. </em>
</p><p><em>“Gigi, you know the CEO’s views on queer people and how he exploits them. He’s said some awful shit right to my face. We had to do something. We had to stand for something.” Grant says, getting teary-eyed herself.</em> </p><p>
  <em>Up until this point, throughout high school, Gigi has tried to fight against her queerness for fear of being ostracized and for fear of rejection. It had never been clear if Gigi’s mom knew she wasn’t straight and it was something that certainly would not be approved of on her dad’s side of things. As Gigi grew up and began working among her queer peers and watching awful things happen outside of her usual bubble – seeing important queer spaces torn down and beautiful, Black queer and other queer people of color be displaced for big business, made her realize she should be out and proud and ready to fight for the cause. Gigi would have quit the salon earlier, if it was not for the tips she received under the table for styling hair and doing makeup that helped pay for her rent, but seeing the issues get worse and hearing how the CEO talked about his queer employees including Ru, made Gigi feel like enough was enough. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“My girls, you are standing up for an amazing cause, but I have to give you this ultimatum. If I owned this place myself, it’d be a different story. Either you drop what you’re doing and stop being so public about it, and you can keep your spot at the school so you can graduate, or you’ll be asked to leave. It’s your choice and I don’t want to sway you either way. Just know, I support you and off the record, I am very proud,” Ru explains, sitting behind her gold-clad desk, trying to create some professional space between her and her students. The consequences for Ru were just too high and Gigi understood that completely, even though it hurt. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ru, I don’t think I can be here anymore. The CEO has made it clear he doesn’t care about any of us and I'm sure I have a target on my back already. I just don’t think I can do it anymore. Please, if Grant decides to stay, please don’t let them penalize her, I will take all the blame,” Gigi says, patting Grant on the shoulder and nodding at Ru. Ru sighs heavily, knowing full well she could not make Gigi stay and that with Gigi leaving, the salon would be losing its most talented student.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I understand, Gigi. Thank you for being honest. We will miss you. You can leave your apron and all your supplies at your station. I’ll have Rosy get them," Ru says.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Shit…” Gigi says out loud, realizing what she’s just done. “Shit…I can’t believe…”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Gigi, dear. It’s clear as day that you’re not happy here and that you made the right decision,” Ru reassures, proud of Gigi for standing up for what she believes in. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh did she now?” A voice as cold as ice. Out of nowhere. It cut through everything. The air. Grant’s soft crying. Gigi’s panic. Ru’s motherly comfort. The man with silver hair and ice in his veins, donning an impeccably tailored custom suit. The CEO. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“We had a deal Ru. You fire Grant and Gigi and I help you get your own salon. Was the plan that difficult? Did I stutter when we discussed the plan? Or does your offensively large hair and equally offensive 10-pound makeup job you did on yourself make it hard to hear and understand?” the CEO spits. Ru’s usually confident and untouchable legendary presence, fades away, leaving a shell of an icon. Ru’s dream has just slipped away. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Sir…” Ru begins, not being able to get out much sound. “I need that salon, I’ve worked so hard for so long…” </em>
</p><p><em>"</em> <em>You should have thought of that when you sided with your own kind, instead of thinking about your future. This is the last time I put up with a workplace full of queers. So much drama. So much ‘fighting the system.’ And such a loss of business and money, it turns out,” the CEO says, almost in a growl. The man had ice in his veins and Gigi’s now felt as though her veins were on fire. She feels her blood boiling. </em></p><p>
  <em>“So interesting that one lesbian bitch could simultaneously not be out to the world, yet attend a protest and call me out directly and very publicly.” Gigi freezes upon hearing this. How did he know this about her? How did he know so much?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You know, your little ‘holier than thou’ speech you made to the news about me and the way my business creates its products lost me some financial backers. This stupid fucking city and everyone being so conscious about sustainability and good labor practices…that’s not how you make actual money,” the man says, his terrifyingly low and raspy voice becoming almost maniacal. At this point, Gigi knows that this one incredibly powerful and connected man could keep her from getting another salon job. Gigi swallows, trying to shove her emotions down to her toes. She did not want to show anything but strength while she was breaking apart, her foundations weakened. Gigi maybe more out to her colleagues at the salon since most are queer themselves, but she is not out to her family. She is not out to the greater world. She isn’t even quite out to herself completely. The label of “lesbian” was something that still terrified Gigi. The CEO continues his speech of insulting Gigi and tearing down Ru and others, but Gigi cannot hear anything. Her heartbeat is loud in her ears, as if she were in a horror movie, waiting for the weighty silence to be cut by something terrifying. Gigi is panicking.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"If you don't go quietly, I'll have to tell everyone you know what you are. You'll be un-hirable as you are unlovable," the CEO adds. There is no conscience. Just vitriol. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I'm leaving. You can't threaten me though. I'm already losing so much. You can't take anything else way," Gigi says, bravely. Gigi is bolstered by nothing but hot air and her own shaky pride. If Gigi is really honest, him threatening to out her is some beyond sinister shit. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Everyone out. You’re all done here,” the CEO says, snapping Gigi out of her panic. Grant is pissed. At the CEO. At Gigi for encouraging her to jeopardize her career. “And Gigi Goode. Do not show your face around here again. In fact, do not show your face at all. To anyone. You’re done” </em>
</p><p><em>Gigi walks out. She takes off her apron and walks out of the salon. Marko is still in the chair waiting for her to come back. Rosy is sweeping up hair. Rubber is organizing makeup products. None of them know, but they will any minute. Before she steps through the threshold, feeling fragile, overheated, and ready to disintegrate, Ru, having lost everything in just minutes as well, leans down and says, “Okay. Fuck his shit up. Take him down.”</em> </p><p>
  <em>Following this interaction with the CEO, Gigi did her damndest to fulfill Ru’s orders and succeeded to an exent. In the process, however, she was outed and pushed out of the closet in every possible way and none of it was on her own terms in the way she wanted it to be. She knew she had created an enemy for life, a powerful one at that, and her personal life and professional life, an absolute mess. So she ran away and found a place and a job where she did not have to show her face. And she was good at it. She was good at running and hiding. Until now.</em>
</p><p>Gigi is snapped out of her flashback and looks into the eyes of the man she has grown to loathe more than anyone else she has ever met. She also fears him the most as well. What he has done and what he could do. The fact that a grown man is so hellbent on destroying her and hasn't let up for a second, is truly terrifying. She wants to punch him in the face. <em>“What the fuck was he doing here and how did he know I was here?” </em></p><p>Gigi can’t take it. She starts to panic and sweat, as if she were back in Ru’s office on the single worst day of her life. She runs out of the store, the terrifying man smirking as she runs out and into the street. He is smirking as if he has won something and this makes Crystal angry beyond belief.</p><p>“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Crystal asks, directly, looking into the CEO’s eyes. Her usual awkwardness and softness, that she has with almost everyone else is nowhere to be found. Despite being fairly tall, Crystal is quite a bit shorter than the man still, which makes him feel like he’s looming over her, bending slightly as if to belittle and scare her at the same time. She’s never seen eyes like his.</p><p>“I’m an old friend of your cute, little neighborhood radio star and I wanted to know more about this establishment,” the CEO says, his voice lilting in the most patronizing on the words “cute” and “little,”   while he takes his long arm and gesturing to the interior of Methyd Records as if he were on a gameshow and Crystal’s store was the prize he was giving away. In the two times Crystal has seen this man, she’s gathered that he’s powerful, entitled, and bad news.</p><p>Crystal is about to say something insulting that would culminate in kicking the man out of her store, but stops when she sees, out of the large window of the store, Gigi having a full-on panic attack and crying. For a moment, Gigi looks back into the store and directly at Crystal, her eyes pleading for something. For help. For Crystal.</p><p>Gigi then bends over and looks for something to hold onto. Crystal feels tears well up in her own eyes at the sight of Gigi's pain. Crystal’s little brother squeezes her arm, as if to say, “go ahead, I’ll take care of him.”</p><p>Crystal nods and pushes past the man, out the door, up the concrete steps, out of the gate, and right to Gigi. At first, Crystal is not sure how to help her, since they were still getting to know each other and this is such a personal moment for Gigi. Crystal also is very conscious of touching without consent, and knows in the midst of some her own panic attacks, she absolutely did not want the presence of another. Crystal stands beside Gigi, who is holding on to part of the wroght iron gate, still bent over and trying to breathe. Gigi’s heart rate picks up and her breathing goes in the opposite direction. She is hyperventilating and Crystal immediately grabs Gigi’s hand, hoping that that would be okay. Before Crystal does this, Gigi did not know anyone else was near her, but once contact between their hands is made, Gigi is made very much aware that the wonderful Crystal Methyd was by her side. If she couldn’t already tell from the feel of Crystal’s hand, Crystal’s shoes were a dead giveaway.</p><p><em>"I can't believe he's here in this world. In my new home. How did he find me? How did he find me?" </em>Gigi tries gulping down the fresh air around her, but she can't. It's as if she's swallowing water. </p><p>"Gigi..." Crystal says again, making sure Gigi knows she's by her side. </p><p>Gigi looks up at Crystal, trying to communicate everything in just one look so she didn’t have to answer any questions like, “are you okay?” Luckily, Crystal doesn’t ask a single question at all and just tightens her grip slightly on Gigi’s hand. Gigi knows her makeup must be running all over her face, and she probably looks like a disaster, but all Crystal can see from her end, is Gigi. Just Gigi. A Gigi in need of someone. </p><p>Gigi is still having trouble breathing, but is able to stand up to her full height. Gigi pulls on Crystal’s hand since their hands are still connected, and they move away from the store and away from the sight of the CEO. Gigi pulls a slightly confused but very much concerned Crystal into the small alleyway where she saw Jan take out the trash when Gigi first met her.</p><p>“Gigi…” Crystal whispers, trying to avoid asking a question, since she knows from personal experience, questions during an attack like this can make things worse, can make things more overwhelming. Crystal’s whisper makes Gigi’s hear absolutely just melt. On top of Crystal being extraordinarily adorable and beautiful to Gigi, the look of concern in her eyes and her undivided attention for Gigi is what makes her fall even more. Never in her life has she felt like the right person was with her when she needed them most. This is it. This is the person. This is the moment.</p><p>Crystal and Gigi’s fingers are now interlaced, which would normally stop Crystal’s heart, but she is too invested in how Gigi is doing. Gigi looks at Crystal’s large brown eyes behind her glasses, and without wasting another moment, Gigi, who is significantly more physically affectionate than the curly-haired store owner, stretches her long arms out and wraps them around Crystal’s shoulders, burying her head in Crystal’s neck. Crystal’s heart is surely stopping, but that does not keep her from immediately embracing Gigi back, looping her tattooed arms around Gigi’s waist. Gigi begins to tear up some more, sniffling at first, and then letting her full emotions come out once again, feeling somewhat more comfortable to do so since she was in Crystal’s protective embrace now. In doing so, Gigi inadvertently collapses her full weight onto Crystal’s frame, causing Crystal to lose her balance a bit and back up against the brick wall behind her. Gigi wants to apologize for this, but Crystal doesn’t let go, so Gigi leaves it be. In fact, to Gigi’s surpise, Crystal tightens their embrace, to make sure Gigi knows that she’s got her.</p><p>Both Crystal and Gigi’s minds are racing a mile a minute. <em>“Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god.” </em>Gigi feels like she is high on 1,000 emotions. She can't think straight. </p><p>“Crystal…I’m sor…” Gigi begins, only to be interrupted. “Gigi. Do not apologize. Something happened there. Something big. And I’m here. You know, I’m a bit of an expert on panic attacks, so I got you. I’m here.” Crystal says softly, making Gigi melt all over again. Gigi’s head falls to Crystal’s shoulder and she breathes in deeply, taking in the scent of lemon shampoo cinnamon-laced cloth. Crystal's signature. Now, it is Gigi’s favorite scent in the world. Gigi wonders why Crystal is an expert on panic attacks, and it makes her deeply sad to think about all the times Crystal has struggled. Gigi wants to hear about it and show up for Crystal in the same way Crystal is currently showing up for Gigi.</p><p>“Crystal, I don’t think I can go back in there…” Gigi begins, her usually smooth voice a bit raspy from crying. She winces at the thought of seeing the CEO again.</p><p>“You don’t have to now. Or ever. I just...don’t like this guy. He came by a few days ago…I don’t want to push you at all, but it seems like you know each other and you don’t have to tell me everything, but maybe when you’re ready you can tell me a little bit? At least so I can figure out how to get rid of him, for you,” Crystal says, now rubbing Gigi’s back in gentle circles.</p><p>“I want to tell you everything. I think I have to now that he’s come here. It’s complicated because a lot it revolves around who I am…” Gigi says, hanging her head in shame. She cannot believe her past has followed her. Gigi thought she ran away hard enough and far enough. Crystal wonders what Gigi means by “who she is.” <em>“Is Gigi queer?” </em>Crystal asks herself. It’s not that Crystal is assuming anything, it’s just with the connection they’ve developed, it’s hard not to wonder about how Gigi may identify and if the kind of romantic and undeniable chemical connection Crystal is feeling is felt the same way on Gigi’s side.  </p><p>“Only when you’re ready…” Crystal says, reassuringly.</p><p>“How about tomorrow? If I wait too long, I feel like I’ll never talk about it…” Gigi says. Crystal nods in response. “It’s a date,” Crystal adds. Gigi blushes and hugs Crystal tightly once again, chuckling and nervous about having a big conversation about these things she’s been holding onto for so long, but also relieved that she’d have them with Crystal.</p><p>Gigi, now having returned to a steady breathing pattern, hums into the crook on Crystal’s neck, as if to thank Crystal for understanding. Crystal shivers at the feeling and out of some sort of base instinct, without even thinking, kisses Gigi on the top of her head and continues to rub Gigi’s back. Crystal then realizes what she just did, and feels like an embarrassed teen again.  </p><p>“Crystal…I…can you…” Gigi stutters, fully looking at Crystal now. Gigi, now more than ever, wants Crystal to move away from kissing her head and actually just kiss her. Gigi has wanted to kiss Crystal pretty much since they met, but had not a single ounce of guts to inquire whether Crystal wanted to kiss her back. It is all so high school…middle school, even. But there is something so special between them, it is like the two girls wanted to treat it as if it were as fragile as a pre-teen crush.</p><p>“Gigi, can I kiss you?” Crystal asks boldly, yet quietly, interrupting Gigi. She took the words right out of Gigi’s mouth. Crystal can’t believe those words just came out of her mouth. <em>“You mulleted idiot,” </em>Crystal thinks, convinced that she just ruined everything in that moment.</p><p>“Yes, oh my god!” Gigi says and laughs, putting her slender hands on either side of Crystal's face, her own face feeling slightly stiff from all the tears that have fallen. Crystal is in shock, her eyes wide. Crystal not sure if this is the best time to kiss Gigi, considering she had just been in the midst of a panic attack. Gigi senses Crystal’s hesitation.</p><p>“Crys. Please. Kiss me.” Gigi says, even more quietly than when Crystal asked. Gigi knows this may come off desperate, but she didn't care. She needed to kiss Crystal and she needed Crystal to kiss her. </p><p>Crystal’s heart is beating so loud, she can barely register what Gigi said. The nickname. The way Gigi looks. The way Gigi is, smart and fashionable and talented and strong and vulnerable. Crystal has been able to do little to stop herself from completely falling for the auburn-haired radio star and this is the final straw. Gigi moves some stray curls out of Crystal’s face and then says, "kiss me,” once again. </p><p>And Crystal does.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>OMG THEY OMG &lt;3 get ready for more!! We've just gotten started &lt;3 I love you all and so appreciate you reading this story as always. What did ya'll think? Now we get to see a bit more about Gigi which is so different and interesting to write. So much more to come!!! And how are you all doing? Let me know &lt;3 &lt;3 xoxo</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. The Box</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The thought of mango juice and the smell of Gigi’s hairspray is the kind of sensory overload Crystal should not be thinking about while in public.  </p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello beautiful readers! After a long hiatus, I am writing again &lt;3 I know it has been an incredibly long time, but I thank you all for the lovely comments and kudos I received in the interim and am so happy to be posting this new chapter! Please note, this chapter has a lot of aspects related to mental health struggles and grief. If this chapter offers any comfort to those going through something like this, that is wonderful. For me, it always helps to know I am not alone!! Feel free to share how you all are doing and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the coming chapters as well!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Crys. Please. Kiss me.” Gigi says, even more quietly than when Crystal asked. Crystal’s heart is beating so loud, she can barely register what Gigi said. The nickname. The way Gigi looks. The way Gigi is, smart and fashionable and talented and strong and vulnerable. Crystal has been able to do little to stop herself from completely falling for the auburn-haired radio star and this is the final straw. Gigi moves some stray curls out of Crystal’s face and then says again, “Kiss me.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And Crystal does.</em>
</p><p>And Gigi fully kisses back.</p><p>At first contact, Gigi thinks her knees are going to buckle under her and they almost do. That is of course because of this unbelievable, never-thought-in-a-million-years-it-would-actually happen-kiss. Perhaps it seems so unbelievable to Gigi because it is her first true kiss since she fully came out to herself. Or perhaps it seems so unlikely that this would actually happen - that she’d have the opportunity to kiss Crystal’s boldly painted and perfectly soft lips, because she hasn’t known Crystal that long and having such an intense crush on the girl felt unrealistic.</p><p>Crystal’s back is firmly pressed up against the brick wall behind her, which, in addition to their slight height difference, makes it awkward for Gigi to fully drape her long, pale arms over Crystal’s shoulders the way she wants to, bringing them even closer together. Instead, Gigi, not letting anything get in the way of kissing Crystal, is gently cupping Crystal’s face. Up that close, Crystal is somehow even more breathtaking and fascinating to Gigi. Her soft, messy ringlets are shiny and frame her forehead in the most attractive way and her skin is tight-pored and smooth and the natural caramel glow of her skin has now taken on a slight scarlet blush that Gigi finds adorable, as always. Crystal’s eyelashes are long and full, and her lips. Those <em>lips. </em>Gigi wonders whether any of the deep hunter green lipstick Crystal is wearing has transferred to Gigi. The younger girl doesn’t want to get too far ahead of herself, but she secretly hopes that it does.</p><p>Kissing Crystal gently, while rubbing her thumb over Crystal’s jawline feels so unreal and otherworldly because Crystal herself is otherworldly…and dreamy. For Gigi, who is often so disciplined, rigid in the rules she makes for herself, and outwardly perfect to a tee, kissing this clumsy, artistic, somewhat chaotic, and undeniably lovable person in front of her, makes it feel like like the sharp edges of the buildings and objects that surround them have blurred and melted, and the world around them is now made up of soft brush strokes and soft watercolor splotches of blue and pink and yellow. Nothing is as expected, but everything is imperfectly perfect. Gigi relaxes into the kiss, so much so, that she almost forgets about the panic attack she was just having. That is the affect Crystal has on her.</p><p>Crystal on the other hand, first off, can’t believe she was the first to lean in and capture Gigi’s lips. It’s very bold of her. She hasn’t been bold or daring or adventurous in that way, really every. Maybe she was once with Nicky because it was so hard to get anything out of or back from Nicky, so she had to initiate, but with Gigi she feels genuinely bold. And second of all, Crystal has never felt more present or more alive while kissing someone. She’s not doing her usual overthinking in this moment and every part of Crystal, every single molecule feels laser-focused in on the kiss. While Gigi’s world is softening and blending and melting, Crystal’s is sharpening in the best way. It’s pop rocks. It’s extremely fizzy soda. Kissing Gigi is like eating a fresh summer grapefruit with sugar sprinkled on top - absolutely refreshing, sweet, tart, and and and electric on the lips (in a good way, not in a water-in-an-electrical-machine way). Crystal feels awake and alive. And buzzing.</p><p>Gigi is astounding up close. Crystal is unsure if her falling for Gigi has erased any tiny flaws that might be there for any person, but there, the tall, tailored, and gorgeous Gigi, with her cut jawline and long, slender, fingers circled around Crystal’s face, is flawless. She smells of natural perfume and just a hint of floral hairspray. It is sort of baffling how Gigi exists in this decade. She is a timeless beauty of epic proportions and has the wit, sense of humor, and voice of a leading lady in a 40s musical to boot.</p><p>Crystal’s hands find their way to rest gently on Gigi’s hips. With the initiation of that touch, Gigi smiles into their kiss which sends Crystal reeling. She is lightheaded and needs just a second to breathe or she’d never be able to stop. When her hands encircle Gigi’s face, with the intention of pulling Gigi away just slightly so they can properly register what is going on, Crystal feels the residual tear tracks on Gigi’s cheeks, reminding her of Gigi’s state just a few minutes ago.</p><p>Yes, Gigi totally encouraged the kiss, and it is clear she wanted to keep going, Crystal, forever a deeply empathetic person and instinctual caretaker, can’t ignore the once-there tears. Crystal, with hands cupping Gigi’s face, gently pulls away from Gigi. Gigi visibly deflates at the loss of Crystal’s lips, although their bodies are still close together.</p><p>“Gigi. I could go on for awhile but I want to make sure you’re okay…plus we’re against a cold brick wa...ah!” Crystal gasps quietly, mid-sentence, when Gigi begins to nibble on the upper part of Crystal’s neck, not too far below her earlobe. Crystal’s head immediately falls to the side a bit, giving Gigi greater access. Crystal’s hands drop from Gigi’s face to her sides, which Gigi takes advantage of. Gigi interlaces their fingers and pushes up Crystal’s arms behind her, flush against the brick wall.</p><p>Somehow, Gigi has gotten even closer to Crystal and not a single peek of light or whisper of air could get between them at this point. Crystal is trying very hard not to make any embarrassing noises, but Gigi seems intent on making that happen.</p><p>“Gigi…” Crystal whispers, her eyes closed, her whole being enjoying what is happening. Gigi deftly finds the perfect balance of kissing Crystal’s neck and using her pearly whites to slightly nip at the most sensitive parts.</p><p>“Crys, I…know…you’re…worried…about…me…” Gigi says, whispering each word in between a peppery kiss on Crystal’s neck. Crystal wants to just let go of her worry and savor what Gigi is doing, but at that comment, Crystal’s body tenses up, bringing her out of the heaven she was in.</p><p>“Gigi, of course I’m worried about you. I’m not sure I’ll be able to relax completely because just a few minutes ago…” Gigi sighs and smiles, resting her head on Crystal’s shoulder for a moment, catching her own breath. She can feel the vibrations from Crystal’s talking and cutely bites Crystal’s shoulder. Gigi looks up at Crystal’s worried face and her heart can’t handle it. She gently kisses Crystal on the lips and feels Crystal relax a bit.</p><p>“I know. And this is one of the many reasons I think you’re amazing,” Gigi says, before leaning in for another gentle kiss. “I want us to both enjoy this <em>fully</em> so I promise we’ll talk tomorrow, yeah? I’ll do my best to tell you everything. And we can figure out what this…is,” Gigi reassures the slightly shorter girl, kissing her forehead. Crystal’s immediate worries melt away slightly as she cups Gigi’s face once more to return the kiss.</p><p>“I don’t want to push you, Gigi. I just want you to feel comfortable to talk to me and feel comfortable here in this new place. I want you to be able to call it…”</p><p>“Home?” Gigi asks, finishing Crystal’s sentence. “I already consider it home. I think I started to feel that way when Jackie asked me to watch over the beloved and electrocuted Crystal Methyd.”</p><p>Both girls laugh, still flushed from what they were doing a few moments ago. They walk away from Methyd Records so Gigi could get away from the premises while Crystal’s little brother kicks out the ice man. They walk, hand in hand, in the direction of the radio station. Crystal and Gigi make plans to meet tomorrow evening at Mantione’s to get food, a mundane decision that is discussed only after Crystal asks if Gigi needed anything a few times, which makes Gigi’s heart swell. They will then go back to Crystal’s apartment, somewhere comfortable and safe, to talk. Crystal says she’ll pawn off her little brother on Heidi for the evening, to make sure he doesn’t show up randomly.</p><p>Crystal knows the plan is to just talk, but she can’t help the hitching of her breath and the increase in her heartbeat at the thought of being able to kiss Gigi again, not in an alley. They’ll be <em>alone </em>alone. Not just like they have been when they’ve been working on festival preparations, but truly alone. Crystal’s mind wanders to the thought of kissing Gigi after serving her mangoes with chili. For the first time since she developed the coping mechanism, Crystal has to run her fingers over the grooves in her perpetually-cracked nail polish in order to bring herself down to earth, but not because of anxiety. The thought of mango juice and the smell of Gigi’s hairspray is the kind of sensory overload Crystal should not be thinking about while in public. </p><p>Gigi needs to collect her things (and herself) from the station, so she bids Crystal goodbye with one final peck and a long hug. Crystal feels enveloped and taken care of in that one singular hug. They let go, and Crystal heads out, walking backwards and waving at Gigi.</p><p>“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Crystal asks, nearly running into a lamppost.</p><p>“Definitely! You’re gonna fall or run into something, electrogirl!” Gigi laughs.</p><p>“Fine fine! I just wanted to see your face for a little longer, radio star!” Crystal says back, a bit on the louder side, since she was walking further away from Gigi. Crystal immediately blushes and covers her mouth. Gigi laughs. “Be careful, you dope,” Gigi says to herself as Crystal turns around and flits away, shiny curls and colorful outfit disappearing into the evening. Gigi then collects her things, her hands not being able to do anything else, but gingerly touch her belongings and gently place them in her bag. After holding Crystal, she feels softer than she ever has and everything feels delicate.</p><p>_____</p><p>Crystal walks home, swinging her arms, not in nervousness or embarrassment from thinking about something embarrassing she said or did in front of Gigi,but in unadulterated joy. Gigi had kissed her and likes her and is fully cool with showing it, or at least talking about it. Not that Crystal needs to be <em>that </em>PDA couple, she in fact detests gratuitous PDA, but she was used to being with others that were intent on hiding their relationship, or hiding her. She feels optimistic about this one, if it turns into anything, which, Crystal would be lying if she said it wasn’t already something. Crystal smiles. She smiles big.</p><p>She unlocks her apartment door and takes a deep breath. She slumps against the door like any nervous ingenue in those deeply heterosexual romantic comedies after being kissed like that. As she looks at her phone to see a thumbs-up gif from her little brother, indicating he got rid of the real-life Night King in a business suit, a separate notification pings on her phone. She touches the green message icon to a text from Gigi.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b><em>Let’s do that again &lt;333333333333333</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>Crystal’s cheeks burn. Not only is Gigi asking to make out again, but she is also using the same embarrassing hearts that Jaida texted Gigi from Crystal’s phone before they began working on the Halloween festival. Gigi is funny…and cheeky…and lovely….and so so <em>hot. </em>Crystal touches her face and tries to fan herself like she has the vapors or something.</p><p>She walks over to the fridge to get a cold drink, to try to offset the halo of heat radiating around her head and face. She sees a small note affixed to the fridge with a magnet.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Crys -</em>
</p><p><em>Got rid of abominable snowman … for now.</em> <em>Gone to friend’s. </em></p><p>
  <em>Be back tomorrow morning for pancakes.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Crystal sighs in a brief moment of relief that her brother was able to get the icy man out of the store for the time being.</p><p>She looks at her phone again to re-read Gigi’s sweet text. Quite absent-mindedly, Crystal walks to the walk-in cupboard with the vague intention to check for pancake ingredients and runs into the metal rack while trying to find the words for her reply. The impact of Crystal’s shoulder against the rack causes some cardboard boxes, placed so far up high that Crystal hasn’t ever really noticed them or given any thought to their significance, to fall. Crystal and her little brother grew up in the apartment, so things as commonplace as random cardboard boxes never meant anything.</p><p>Until they did.</p><p>The box falls right in front of the bottom shelf holding containers of dried goods. Rice, pepitas, dried chili peppers so deliciously spicy and perfect on everything - even Heidi’s infamous favorite, pineapple pizza, a pizza Mantione’s really only kept on the menu for Heidi and Heidi alone.</p><p>The cardboard walls of the box are droopy and puckering open in places as the box is slightly damp from sitting on the top shelf for god knows how long. Crystal bends down to pick up the box. She freezes at the sight of a series of things she never in her life, since the passing of her parents, expected to see. All of the warm drunk-like buzziness she had been feeling post-Gigi disappears and is replaced by a feeling Crystal can’t put her finger on.</p><p>The first thing she notices is a shiny laminate envelope filled with a combination of polaroids and pictures developed from a drug store. The photographs are ones she has never seen before - all of her parents when they were younger prior to getting married. There is not a single picture of her mother in which she is not done up perfectly, with her dark hair permed and sprayed to the high heavens and donning monochrome fabrics and layers of big, gaudy-yet-fabulous accessories to match. Her father looks cool and laid back, dressing not unlike Crystal currently does, without the jewelry. She can hear them laugh in the ones they're laughing in and hear her dad whispering a stupid jokes into her mother's ear in others. They look silly and happy and in love in every single photograph. Crystal feels an incredible ache in her heart while looking at their happiness, fully aware of what they didn’t and couldn’t know would come.</p><p>Now sitting on the floor next to the box, which is still on its side, Crystal notices a good amount of opened envelopes. They are all slightly bent or wrinkled and all of them have the little plastic sheet covering the address and name of the recipient. At this point in Crystal’s small business ownership journey, she could recognize a bill or a notice of an unpaid bill when she sees it. Crystal turns the box over so she can put back all the stuff and analyze its contents further. When she does this, her blood pressure shoots up at the sight of just how many bills and notices there are in the box; most of the bills and notices contained in the envelopes were dated from the year prior to and the first few years of Crystal’s art school education. She herself is very responsible so she would have never let things get so disorganized, so she deeply confused as to what was happening at that time and how she never heard about it. It is clear that her parents were struggling to make ends meet and keep the store running at the same time during this period.</p><p>Crystal is now sitting against the wall just outside the pantry, with the box beside her. She fishes around in the sea of envelopes and pulls out a hefty stack of papers, slightly yellowed from sitting in the box. Financial records, all held together by a large black binder clip with rusty prongs. As she sifts through the stack, she sees tables outlining her family’s personal assets and all this stuffy business lingo which she can roughly make out as meaning they didn’t have very much. With new stores moving in and the area becoming more and more gentrified and trendy, businesses, even mainstays like Methyd Records, can come up against challenges. Crystal always admired her parents being able to hold their own in a neighborhood changing more rapidly every year, block by block, but never feared for them because they always seemed so control. Even when Crystal inherited the store, she was told with a steady stream of incoming hipsters, Methyd Records could thrive. But, these papers made it clear, when Crystal was an aspirational art student, there was not a steady stream of people and intense, expensive repairs needed to be made.</p><p>And private art college needed to be paid for. Somehow.</p><p>Crystal is running her fingers over her nail polish for the old reason, but the smoothness and the jagged grooves do nothing whatsoever to bring her back to reality. She feels an immense weight of guilt. Crushing her.</p><p>The crushing continues as she looks through the documents. The stack includes all this information her parents had collected and all the notes they took on how to obtain money in order to pay Crystal’s tuition. It looks like they went to multiple lenders outside of their immediate neighborhood to try to make it work. Near the end of the stack, after seeing an entire heartbreaking history of her parents desperately trying to pay for her college tuition, there is a piece of paper with nothing on it but a handwritten phone number. The phone number doesn’t seem significant to Crystal in any way, other than the fact that the area code, 213, matched the area code of Gigi’s cell phone number.</p><p>A Los Angeles number. Crystal, albeit lightheaded from the incredible download of heavy never-before-seen treasure trove belonging to her deceased parents, is so curious about the strange number, that she types the number into the notes section of her phone and intends to google the number to see if anything comes up, however, just as her fingers begin to go through the motions of copying and pasting the mysterious number into the search engine, she sees another envelope in the box.</p><p>The envelope is not a business envelope, but a plain one, with her name on it. Written in her father’s handwriting.</p><p>She doesn’t even need to read the letter before a lump forms in her throat. Crystal feels her surroundings melt away and all that is left is her, the envelope, and the very same type of grief she felt on the day of the accident. Crystal often thinks of the feeling when she knew she had lost them because of its specificity. It felt like she was making a bed. She is making a bed, trying to get the fitted sheet on all four corners of the mattress. A completely normal activity at first. But then, the sheet curls inwards at all four corners and traps her in, swallowing her whole. She tries pushing against the cotton barrier between her and the light and air on the outside, trying to find an opening, but all she accomplishes is tiring her self out and tangling herself up. It’s dark and she’s left with nothing but dread and grief and loneliness. The mundane everyday is now impossible to cope with.</p><p>Crystal walks herself over to the couch in the living room, leaving the box on the floor. She manages to sit down and breathes heavily upon contact with the couch, clutching the letter. She is sure that reading the will bring up all the things that have been plaguing her since the accident. The fact that she will never be able to be fully herself with them. The fact that she misses them so very much and always will. The fact that her little brother will graduate without looking at their proud faces. The fact that she misses them so very much and always will. The fact that she is living her life in the same house and the same store with the possibility that she will never grow from out of the shadow of the life her parents left behind. The fact that she misses them so very much and always will.</p><p>As she begins to open the letter, trying her best to not allow her finger nails to do too much damage to the envelope or the letter contained in it, Crystal finds herself feeling a flash of a new feeling. This letter is an unknown. A new thing. A new discovery, something else her parents have left, but it’s not like there are dozens and dozens of letters from her parents lying around the house to sustain her for the rest of her life. This very well may be the last new thing. The last thing her parents can truly give her. The last act of care. After that, that’s it.</p><p>This realization, the flash of that feeling turning into much more than a flash, well, that makes Crystal long for the cocoon of the fitted sheet.</p><p>_____</p><p>Gigi has a great fucking day at work. Her morning walk is jaunty as ever. Her arrival at each of her favorite landmarks on her route to work is punctuated by the change of a new song. Roxette. Kim Wilde. Loverboy.</p><p>Gigi smiles as she walks by Methyd Records, and almost wants to skip the rest of the way to the station in order to match her hitching heartbeat.</p><p>The statuesque radio segment host spends the morning bantering with Jackie on the air and filling the town in on the upcoming Halloween festivities. It wouldn’t be long now before its arrival. Gigi highlighted the almost-full lineup of artists and artisans who would be working the art fair to get people excited about what they could see and buy in just a few short weeks.</p><p>She signs off with effortless style and feels like she’s on top of the world. Jackie and all of the assistants and technicians rave about Gigi’s segment, calling it a feat that she was able to remember every single person who will be featured in the art fair. Gigi laughs a breathy laugh and thanks them all, but not without giving full credit to Crystal who had been quizzing her on the names of everyone in town and what they were going to display at their kiosks.</p><p>Nothing could stop Gigi’s feelings of excitement. To kill it at work and then follow it up with a what she could only fully assume was a date, with Crystal this evening. While she is nervous to talk about what has been going on with her to someone for the first time, Gigi knows Crystal would never force her to talk about anything she didn’t want to. This is what puts Gigi at ease.</p><p>She shoots Crystal a quick text.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>Hi hi! Meet you at Mantione’s &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>Gigi’s day continues. Her and Jackie have an uneventful day of writing and planning. Jackie shows her the ropes of accepting phone calls from sponsors and working out deals for advertising. Jackie also tries to ask innocuous questions about Gigi’s life, but there’s nothing innocuous about Auntie Jackie. She really wants to know about how Gigi and Crystal were coming along. While taking a coffee break, Gigi realizes she hasn’t heard back from Crystal at all. No response to her text last night or the most recent one. A small ping goes off in Gigi’s brain as if alerting her to the idea that something may not be right, but Jackie pulls her into a separate recording room to observe something technical that normally, Gigi would be really into.</p><p>By the early evening, Gigi finds herself finishing a list of tasks Jackie needed done but couldn’t get to herself. Gigi is getting anxious to head to Mantione’s and wants her slightly-growing worry regarding Crystal’s lack of response to return to excitement, butterflies, and comfort from seeing Crystal’s smiling bespectacled face and curly lemon-scented locks.</p><p>Gigi packs her stuff up, primps for a bit in the bathroom, making her lipstick perfectly follows the line of her cupid’s bow. She exits the radio station and turns on her music. Bananarama play loudly in her ears as she hurries to Mantione’s. There, she says hi to Jan and Jan’s family, sits down at the same table she and Jan first talked, briefly greets Jaida, and watches Jaida flirt awkwardly with Jan. She spots Aiden run in and out with a couple of pies, but not without giving Gigi a peace sign and a stuck-out tongue. She watches Dahlia rollerblading on the street and greeting everyone she passes. She watches the whole world around her and everyone in it greeting each other, knowing each other, arriving with the promise that they will be back. That they will not just be in touch, but they will be there. She texts Crystal letting her know she is at Mantione's. </p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>Hi! Just checking in. Let me know if you wanna meet somewhere else or some other time. Totally cool. Just wanna make sure you’re okay. </em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>A half an hour goes by.</p><p>Then an hour.</p><p>Then an hour and a half.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>Gigi leaves Mantione’s about an hour and forty-five minutes after arriving. Jan tries to convince her to stay and eat at least some bread or something. Gigi asks Jan if she knows if everything is cool with Crystal or if she got wrapped up in something else, leaving her too busy to come by. Jan doesn’t know, but suggests Gigi ask Heidi. Gigi can’t say she feels too comfortable calling on Crystal’s close friends yet, besides Jan. With no text from Crystal, Gigi can’t decide if she was feeling more worried or disappointed. She hates that she feels disappointed at all, but they left everything on such a good note. She wants to spend time with Crystal and open up to her.</p><p>Gigi walks by Crystal’s apartment, not to be clingy or stalker-esque, just to see if she could gather any information about whether Crystal is home.</p><p>The lights are off.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> All the way off. </span></p><p>Gigi arrives at her home, still with no response whatsoever and feels, as much as disappointment and dejection (and rejection) as she had felt in Los Angeles anytime a date cancelled on her after she had been looking forward to finally going out and being social, or whenever a so-called friend chose to hang out with someone else over her and she found out about it over social media. This feeling began to disappear a bit as Jackie welcomed her in, as she got to know the people in the neighborhood, as she enjoyed the company (and pizza) of Jan, and of course, as she became more linked with Crystal. With no response from the girl she had kissed passionately just the day before, Gigi can feel that link crumbling. She can feel herself wanting to retreat into herself and put on that aloof perfection protection she wears so well and so often.</p><p>For the first time in a bit, Gigi feels like an outsider.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ah our girls!!! What do you think will happen next~</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks so much for reading! I think most of the chapters will be on the long side and I'll try to update as regularly as I can! I love writing Crystal (and all of them) because she is just naturally a joy  &lt;3 "Goode Art" is also a terrible name for Gigi's radio segment but that was a placeholder and I kept using it...it feels dumb enough to work</p></blockquote></div></div>
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